Restrictions on hazardous substances

Key points:

• The EESC believes the amendment to this Directive is both timely and necessary to prevent barriers to trade and the distortion of competition in EU.
• The EESC is of the view that to achieve the waste hierarchy's highest priority, waste prevention, this directive alone is not sufficient.
• The EESC recommends that a combination of the RoHS directive along with the Ecodesign Directive and the WEEE Directive would need to be used together to achieve these goals.

Related opinions:

• NAT/676 - Circular Economy Package
• NAT/427  - Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
• NAT/426 - Hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment

Related links and documents:

• Prevention of hazardous waste in Europe - the status in 2015, EEA Report No 35/2016, December 2016
• Study on harmonisation of the format for registration and reporting of producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) to the national register and on the frequency of reporting, European Commision, January 2016
• Study on WEEE recovery targets, preparation for re-use targets and on the method for calculation of the recovery targets, European Commission, April 2015
• Circular economy package - Four legislative proposals on waste, European Parliamentary Research Service, February 2017
• European Parliament think tank on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, European Parliament, Ex-Ante Impact Assessment Unit
• Additional Input to the Commission Impact Assessment for a Review of the Scope Provisions of the RoHS Directive, Institute for Applied Ecology, June 2014
• Case study e-waste management, Dr M. Schluep, World Resources Forum, E-Waste - Multi Country Case Study, July 2014
• Patent Landscape Report on E-Waste Recycling Technologies, World Intellectual Property Organization, November 2013
• Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), European Commission, July 2012
• Closing the loop – An EU action plan for the circular economy, European Commission, December 2015