Reuse and Recycle of WEEE (Wastage of Electrical and Electronics Equipment) – Optional or Mandatory?
The Directive on WEEE (Wastage of Electrical and Electronics Equipment) in EU notes that the content of hazardous components in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is a major concern during the waste management phase and recycling of WEEE is not undertaken to a sufficient extent. The WEEE directive places the responsibility of end of life (EOL) disposal responsibility of the products on the manufacturers either individually or by joining a collective scheme. This implies that the cost of disposal of the product and the harmful substances that it contains squarely lies on the manufacturer. The EU Commission has set new targets for recovery and reuse/recycling by 31-Dec-2008 for all EU countries.
This force the Hi-Tech manufacturers to ensure good processes for reverse logistics and may need put in place processes for collection of products at end-of-life and disposal/recycling to ensure that they meet the WEEE criteria. This also places greater emphasis on ensuring presence of hazardous substances in compliance to RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) directive in components used for making their products.
Due to the emphasis globally on green environment, it is very likely that other countries like US, India, China, etc. may set in legislations and laws to enforce regulations on waste generation and reuse and put more pressure on the producers to be liable and responsible for the electronic wastes generated by their products. The producers of such products will also need to own responsibility of this wastage handling and the associated financial burden of this.
In this context, it is imperative on the Hi-Tech manufacturers to be aware of this since it affects the organization in many fronts:
Strategy on reuse/recycle: The Hi-Tech manufacturers will need to adopt long term, global strategies to handle this compliance instead of short- term local solutions which focus on countries which currently have legislations in place.
Financial considerations: There is a need to understand the cost implications of recycling and non-compliance related penalties. Hence there is a need to use "green components" which do not attract these provisions and also formulate processes for reuse of components thereby facilitating recovering some costs.
Process alignment: There is a need to create / strengthen reverse logistic processes to help in collection of end-of-life products and process for disposal / recycling. There could also be a need for new processes to facilitate the mandatory compliance reporting requirements.
Finally, it should be noted that compliance may no longer be an option for Hi-Tech manufacturers. They need to formulate a well defined long term strategy that is flexible enough to handle more stringent conditions, more countries added to the list, etc. It is imperative that the Hi-Tech manufacturer takes a proactive stand on compliance and prepare themselves well in advance with the required strategies and processes to ensure they stay ahead of competition in this race for compliance.
Read more :-
http://www.infosysblogs.com/oracle/2008/12/regulatory_compliance_is_manda.html
http://www.infosysblogs.com/oracle/2008/08/hitech_trash_have_our_edumps_b.html
