Whether the industry likes it or not - and ready or not - green is being legally mandated over the next two years, in Europe, Asia and in parts of the US, namely California.

It has been a long time coming, but the electronics industry is less than a year away from the lead-free mandate in Europe.

The European Union's restriction on hazardous substances (RoHS) directive officially goes into effect July 1, 2006. As most know by now, it will ban new electrical and electronic equipments containing more than agreed-upon levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE), although there are some exemptions and extensions for certain applications. The banning of lead, of course, being prevalent in solder, at least up until now, has been the most worrisome aspect to the electronics industry.

Essentially, products that don't meet the criterion of the RoHS directive won't be allowed on the market in the European Community's 25 member states. Aside from the RoHS legislation, the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive begins to take affect August 13 of this year. It mandates and sets criteria for the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of electrical and electronic equipment, putting the responsibility and cost on the makers of said equipment; end users, i.e., consumers, can return WEEE without charge.

Europe is the first to adopt such legislation and put it into effect. By now, everyone in the industry is familiar with RoHS and the R&D that's taken place on lead-free solder development, or at least they should be. And while Europe may be the first to put such legislation, it certainly isn’t the only country on the list.

“Pretty much every country in the world has environmental regulations, so if you are talking about environmental compliance, I’d be hard pressed [to find a place] that doesn’t have manufacturing,” Fern Abrams, director of environmental policy at IPC – Association Connecting Electronics Industries, said. “But if you are just looking at RoHS or lead free, your list is close to complete.”

Rules around the world

Japan: While Japan hasn't legally mandated reduction or elimination of lead, the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) early on called for the use of lead in electronics to be reduced by 50 per cent by 2000 and 75 per cent by this year, according to IPC. Many Japanese electronics companies, with their eyes on the European market, as well, have chosen to voluntarily comply.

In the field of electronics recycling, Japan took an early lead. MITI proposed take-back/recycling legislation as early as mid-1998; the Japanese Home Electronics Recycling Law mandated that Japanese OEMs be prepared to collect and recycle air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions and washing machines by April 2001.

In 2001 Japan also updated a decade-old recycling law to address PCs. Since October 2003, that law has required the recycling of PCs discarded by both private citizens and businesses.

China: It is rather ironic, considering that China has in the past been a dumping ground for waste electronics. But China is racing Europe to put its own version of the RoHS directive into place, dubbed the Regulation for Pollution Control of Electronics Products.

But the move isn't entirely environmentally altruistic; Europe buys roughly 25 per cent of China's electronics exports, approximately $50bn in 2004. Similar to Europe's RoHS, China's version of the regulations is set to go into effect concurrently in July of 2006.

China is also apparently developing its own version WEEE legislation, dubbed Management Regulations on the Recycling of Used Household Electrical Products and Electronic Products.

South Korea: While it hasn't mandated lead-free electronics inside its own borders, it has enacted a voluntary compliance program to phase out lead and the other five substances named in the European RoHS initiative to ensure that its producers are able to maintain access to European markets.

South Korea has also legislated electronics recycling, requiring producers and importers to take back and recycle both their products and packaging. The legislation created phased recycling targets for various electrical and electronic equipment, according to the IPC. Manufacturers of computers and televisions must recycle 55 per cent of their products this year and 65 per cent by 2006. Mobile phone and audio equipment manufacturers are required to reach 60 per cent by 2005 and 70 per cent by 2006.

The United States: Efforts here are a little more piecemeal than across the pond; while there is no federal legislation on the books or pending that is similar to that of Europe's RoHS or WEEE directives, the federal legislature has considered such legislation before. There are also federal regulations governing the disposal of waste containing lead and other toxic substances found in electronics.

At the state level, there is a different story, however. A number of states within the United States are considering RoHS- and WEEE-like legislation, and California has already adopted RoHS legislation that mirrors the laws going into effect in Europe.

The California law goes into effect at the beginning of 2007. Essentially following the same requirements as those found in the European legislation, devices that don't meet that criteria won't be able to be manufactured, sold or imported into California after January 1, 2007. However, the California legislation is not as broad as the European legislation in terms of the devices covered; the California laws won't cover mobile phones or DVD players, for example.