...One of the largest electronics recyclers in the North East has said more needs to be done to inform business users about the new WEEE recycling regulations taking effect from July 1. Wincanton, which has the capacity to process more than 75,000 tonnes of electrical waste each year at its Billingham site in Middlesborough, said yesterday that it could take up to a year for businesses to be fully up to speed on recycling items like old IT and telecoms equipment.... more...

...To help expand the availability of good translations of China RoHS documents, RoHSwell.com has arranged for the translation of the Environment-Friendly Use Period Guidelines (Draft). As with other RoHSwell publications, purchasers of the guidelines are entitled to receive free updates as they become available.... more...

...In what must be one of the most bizarre twists in the evolution of the WEEE Regulations, DTI have recently announced that they have appointed........... the Vehicle Certification Agency to make sure that from 1 July, electrical equipment retailers are complying with their obligations.... more...

...Korea's Ministry of the Environment seeks public comment on a pair of environmental rules tied to electronics equipment recycling. Through June 7, the MoE will accept comments to the recently issued Enforcement Ordinance and the Enforcement Regulation of the Act on the Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Vehicles (Korean RoHS).... more...

...The Environment Agency has released information on the share of the household electronics market each WEEE producer compliance scheme will be responsible for under the WEEE Regulations. The data shows the market dominated by five schemes - REPIC, Valpak, ERP UK, Transform and DHL WEEE Compliance.... more...

...The campaign to fight the crippling effect the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive will have on smaller IT firms has stepped up with the launch of an e-petition on the 10 Downing Street web site.... more...

...As environmental activist groups like Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/ serve as ever-louder public whistle-blowers on the problem of e-waste http://www.edn.com/article/CA6431039.html, the Electronic Industries Alliance http://www.eia.org (EIA) has released a consensus framework that it claimed paves the way for federal legislation establishing a national program for recycling household TVs and information technology (IT) products such as computers and computer monitors.... more...

...Intel has announced that its future processors, beginning with its family of 45nm high-k metal gate (Hi-k) processors, are going 100 per cent lead-free from the second half of 2007.... more...

...Product compliance requirements, largely regulated by government agencies to help ensure quality and safety, have long been a factor in the design, manufacture and sale of goods and services. While environmental regulations themselves are not new to industry, they historically have been associated more with manufacturing plants than with products themselves. But this has changed dramatically in recent years. Green technology is here to stay.... more...

...HERNDON, Va. and RENO, Nev. - iNEMI will hold its tin whisker workshop to review tin plating, tin whiskers, and reliability concerns May 29, 2007, at the Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC) in Reno, Nev. The all-day workshop is co-sponsored by iNEMI, CPMT, and ECTC, and is open only to ECTC attendees.... more...

...SAN JOSE, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- SEMI today announced details for its European Union Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) Webcast. Targeted at SEMI members, equipment and materials manufacturers, and companies that import products into Europe, the Webcast is designed to help affected companies better understand if and how REACH will impact their businesses, as well as what the first steps will be.... more...

...On 17 May 2007, the draft Enforcement Ordinance of and the draft Enforcement Regulation of the Act on the Recycling of Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Vehicles were issued by the Ministry of the Environment for Official Public Consultation.... more...

...LONDON - Densitron Displays has set up a Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) service agreement with Weeeco Ltd, through which it will provide WEEE care services, training seminars and compliant registration for producers to help businesses better understand and comply with their WEEE responsibility.... more...

...DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY News Release (Reference P/2007/97) issued by The Government News Network on 18 May 2007. The Science and Innovation Minister, Malcolm Wicks, today announced the appointment of the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) as the enforcement body for the distributor obligations under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations.... more...

...In an effort to address inventory problems facing OEMs, some independent distributors are offering to convert existing inventories to RoHS compliance. Many OEMs are stuck with eftover components that they are unable to use due to recent corporate strategies for converting products to RoHS compliance.... more...

...When we observe all the new materials being offered and all of the product and process data that is being published, it appears clear that lead-free (LF) assembly is transitioning from initial implementation to an optimization phase. Or from "How do I build an acceptable LF product?" to "What can I do to my materials and processes to make my LF products less expensive, easier to assemble, and more reliable?"... more...

...In an effort to address inventory problems facing OEMs, some independent distributors are offering to convert existing inventories to RoHS compliance. Many OEMs are stuck with leftover components that they are unable to use due to recent corporate strategies for converting end products to RoHS compliance.... more...

...The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) will be holding the Successful Lead-Free RoHS/Strategies Conference on June 20-21, 2007, at the Holiday Inn Boxborough Hotel in Boxborough, MA. The seminar features two days of technical presentations covering RoHS, Lead-Free Reliability, Tin Whiskers, and Lead-Free Assembly, as well as a Keynote presentation by Gregory Morose, Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI), University of Massachusetts Lowell.... more...

...IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries announces that it will sponsor a workshop course focusing on lead-free component (Sn-whisker), PCB (materials) and assembly (solder joint reliability) on June 8, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. The courses will be held at Grand Hyatt Singapore in Singapore.... more...

...Endress+Hauser is leaving the 'Lead Age' behind. The company has been working hard at eliminating the toxic heavy metal from all of its electronic components - voluntarily implementing a new European Union directive. Endress+Hauser has successfully reduced its consumption of lead from approximately one and a half tons per annum to only a few kilograms per year.... more...

...The European Union’s Restrictions of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive took affect on July 1, 2006, declaring that electrical and electronic equipment must not contain more than the permitted concentrations of six substances: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. Almost nine months in, how is EU RoHS going? What companies are having trouble? And what are they doing about it? The European Commission’s answer is an intelligent guess at the moment, being in the midst of an analysis of just this question, and the EC doesn’t expect to have an official answer for several months.... more...

...Anyone who has bought a cell phone, a digital music player, a computer, or other electronic product knows the problem - the technology changes so quickly that your purchase is often outdated within months. This is a source not only of mounting frustrations and expense, but also of mounting hazardous technological waste.... more...

...We're almost at the point where we can celebrate the one-year anniversary of the EU's RoHS Directive going into effect globally. Looking back, it's been a fairly quiet year for lead-free manufacturing, despite overwhelming concerns regarding reliability, compatibility, feasibility, and policing.... more...

...A new RoHS Reliability assessment service combines the strengths of an expert UK consultant and an independent laboratory report to assist manufacturers to become compliant with the directive... more...

...The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI), an industry-led consortium, today announced that a majority of its OEM and EMS members strongly support unique part numbers for BGA components to differentiate any Pb-free ball metallurgies other than SAC 305 or SAC 405, including low silver, added dopants such as nickel, and other SAC (or non-SAC) alloy compositions.... more...

...Protocols to simplify the data required to show compliance with treatment and recycling obligations under the WEEE Regulations have been published by Defra. Protocols to simplify the data required to show compliance with treatment and recycling obligations under the WEEE Regulations have been published by Defra.... more...

...More U.S. consumers are familiar with the concept of green products and how their actions affect the environment than they were last year, according to a new survey.... more...

...The participating members of the IPC Solder Products Value Council are compelled to clearly articulate to the electronics industry the current situation regarding the global supply and demand of two crucial metallic elements to the electronics industry. The cost of tin and silver have reached 19-year highs, and it is important for the industry to understand the implications of this type of cost increase on the supply of solder alloys.... more...

...Not properly recycling your outdated IT assets can be risky business, financially and from a brand equity standpoint. Even old practices such as employee sales, auctions, and charitable donations can carry significant risk.... more...

...Soldertec Global is launching a new RoHS reliability assessment service that combines the strengths of an expert UK consultant and an independent laboratory report. The modular options of this service enable an electronics manufacturing company to select an assessment package that closely targets their individual needs.... more...

...This event will bring attendees timely and relevant information and best practices for use in the reliable and effective transition to lead-free and RoHS assembly. (6/20/2007 - 6/21/2007)... more...

...Soldertec Global is currently launching a new RoHS Reliability assessment service, which combines the strengths of an expert UK consultant and an independent laboratory report. The modular options of this service enable an electronics manufacturing company to select an assessment package, which closely targets their individual needs.... more...

...The impact of trade directives on the electronics industry is to be researched by the European Union, which has commissioned specific teams to do so. Both the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS directive) and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Weee) directive will be explored in the study.... more...

...The European Commission in charge of compliance with the lead-free ban is now re-examining the RoHS directive that invoked it.... more...

...Devoted to the development of new radiation detector and systems technology, RMD Instruments LLC announces that it will showcase the LeadTracer-RoHS XRF system in booth L46 at the upcoming Nepcon exhibition and conference scheduled to take place May 15 to 17, 2007 at the Birmingham NEC in Birmingham, United Kingdom.... more...

...The EU RoHS and WEEE Directives have had a significant effect on the global electronics industry. Please take the time to communicate your concerns and issues to the EU. . . Take advantage of the opportunity to be involved in a process that could potentially lead to recommendations for revision to both Directives.... more...

...New technology to remove potentially hazardous chemicals from plastics within waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) could be on the market in the next two years, after trials were deemed a success.... more...

...Officers who usually make sure that weighing and measuring equipment is accurate look set to enforce retailer take-back schemes for old electrical appliances from July, writes James Cartledge. The Department of Trade and Industry is now expected to hand responsibility for checking up on retailers that do not join the national recycling scheme for waste electronics to the National Weights and Measures Laboratory.... more...