State of RoHS (non) compliance in small and medium sized enterprises

The deadline for the implementation of the RoHS (Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances) Directive, which went into effect July 1, 2006, has already been expired. It is still the question whether all concerned products have already been successfully converted from non-compliance to compliance and what economical and environmental effects result from the RoHS transition. Within the EU project "GreenRoSE", a cooperation of industrial associations, research institutions and industry, a survey has been conducted in 40 electronic enterprises in Poland in October 2006. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) make 85% of the responders. The survey covered different sectors ranging from end producers, suppliers to producers of soldering equipment, and addressed the pre-RoHS situation, transition process and the post-RoHS status in view of management (logistics), environmental and economical issues. This paper gives an overview about the compliance status, identifies the critical issues in the RoHS transition process and evaluates the environmental and economical impact. Detailed data on costs of the transition process will be given. An analysis will be provided, how the SMEs deal with non-compliant parts they still have on stock and what are the technical problems not solved yet adequately. The ban of the six hazardous substances of the RoHS directive is still not transposed into practice fully by many, especially for lead. A longer transition phase is expected, resulting in a significant amount of non-compliant products entering the market. Nevertheless, the result of this paper is a step to obtain profound information in order to ensure RoHS compliance, and to maintain the experience of the enterprises from the implementation for future regulations. The GreenRoSE project undertook numerous efforts and activities to support SMEs in transition management - and the enterprises appreciated the various resources for information and assistance -, however, this could not solve the transition problems fully.