Electronics recycling proposals under fire

Date: 10/09/1998

By Peter Chapman

EUROPEAN Commission draft proposals on recycling electronic kit are a recipe for job losses and a transatlantic trade row, claim industry experts.

The Commission is still working on the final shape of proposals intended to boost the recycling of old information technology and electrical goods by harmonising national recycling measures and regulating the use of certain substances in new products.

But Bill McCartney, environment expert with US chip and mobile communications company Motorola, has warned that in its current form the proposed directive will fail to meet these objectives and could have grave side effects.

McCartney, who is also an environment specialist for telecom manufacturers' lobby ECTEL, said a proposed ban on the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium would create turmoil in the industry and force small firms producing components out of business.

"Lead is a mainstay of the industry. It is in solder and most of the prongs attached to semiconductors," he explained.

"Big companies like Motorola could get out of lead if need be. But we buy a lot of components from small companies. If they had to change to non-lead, they would not be able to afford the costs of retooling their plants and would go to the wall."

McCartney claims a ban on the use of materials such as lead would be misguided in any event.

"Lead is conceptually an unpleasant substance that affects children's learning. But when it's sitting in a circuit board it is not posing a gigantic threat," he said.

He added that while the Commission was targeting the electrical goods and car industries with such bans, it was not doing the same in other sectors where materials such as lead are widely used.

The Motorola expert is also critical of plans to ban the use of certain halogenated flame retardants in EU products and warned of a likely EU-US trade row over the issue.

"These flame retardants have nasty side effects. But the problem is they are actually mandated in by the US federal government. There is obviously a worry that this amounts to a barrier to trade," he said.

US government sources said no rift had emerged so far over the issue, but added that Washington officials were meeting the Commission this week to get more information about the proposals.

McCartney, who helped launch a mobile phone recycling scheme in the UK and Scandinavia, also attacks plans for recycling targets. These include a call for between 70% and 90% of kit to be recycled by 2004. "It is easy to set these targets, but in reality it takes a long time to build up.

At first you don't get very great returns," he said.

At the same time, he warns against imposing a 5% target for the recycled material in plastics, saying: "If you use recycled plastic in some small products such as mobile phones, you get problems. The plastic shatters if the product is dropped."

Other industry groups such as IT equipment lobby EUROBIT and the American Electronics Association (AEA) say they are also gearing up to try to force the Commission to change the proposals.

"This issue is right at the top of our EU agenda," said AEA's Stephanie Holmgren, who added that her organisation and others were keen to broach the subject at November's Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) meeting.

They are also preparing to lobby Commission directorates-general other than the institution's environment department (DGXI) in a bid to secure changes to the proposals before they are formally unveiled.

Meanwhile, Commission officials are remaining tight-lipped about the brewing controversy ahead of briefing sessions with member states this week, although they have confirmed their intention to unveil proposals for the directive before Christmas.

A DGXI source warned that the timetable for its adoption could drag into the new millennium as next year's European Parliament elections bring EU business grinding to a halt.