The European Union Parliament and the European Commission on February 13, 2003 in its "Official Journal" issued the "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive" (referred to as the "WEEE Directive") and "Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (referred to as the "RoHS Directive")
The RoHS Directive and the "WEEE Directive" provides for the inclusion of hazardous materials Restriction of management and end-of-life recycling management of ten categories of 102 kinds of products, the first seven categories of products are China's main export electrical products. These include large household appliances, small household appliances, information and communication equipment, consumer products, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment, medical equipment (except for implanted or infected products), monitoring and control instruments, and vending machines.
On December 3, 2008, the European Union released a proposal to amend the WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC) and the RoHS Directive (2002/95/EC). The aim of this proposal is to create a better regulatory environment, i.e., simple, understandable, effective and enforceable regulations.
The main elements of the revision of the RoHS Directive are:
1. Changes to the legal terminology, clarification of the scope of the Directive and its definitions;
2. Introduction of CE marking of the products as well as EC Declaration of Conformity;
3. Phased incorporation of the Medical Devices, Control and Monitoring instruments to the RoHS Directive;
The six hazardous substances restricted remain unchanged, but four substances - hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) -Requests a prioritized assessment to examine the inclusion of restricted substances in the future