EU Parliament and Council formally announces stringent new rules for electronic waste(WEEE) and other measures

On Feb 13, the European Parliament and the Council announced the final draft directives on the electronic waste (WEEE) and on the use of hazardous substances in electrical equipment (ROHS). The key points are as follows:

The Member States have until 2005 to introduce take-back systems and collection facilities for all electrical and electronic equipment. The EU member countries have a binding collection rate of 4 kg per inhabitant a year by the end of 2006.

Also, from July 1, 2006, the Member States must follow the rule that new electrical and electronic equipment on the market does not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, poly-brominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers(PBDE).

It also announced a Directive on the approximation of the laws of the member countries relating to measures against the emission of gaseous and particular pollutants from internal combustion engines to be installed in non-road mobile machinery, which will enter into force in 2004.

World-wide, the size of the environmental industries keeps on expanding

Environmental industries are businesses that deal with pollution management and reduction, as well as energy conservation, management, and recycling. Recently, their state-of-the-art technology development contributed to spreading its practicality into many different fields, other than just the environment.

The scale of the environmental market all around the world amounted to 523.7 billion dollars in 2000, 586.2 billion dollars in 2002, and 700 billion dollars expected for 2005, with a steady annual increase of about 3 to 6%.

The scale of the environmental market in Korea amounted to 6.9 billion dollars in 2000, 9.1 billion dollars in 2002, and 14.3 billion dollars expected for 2005, with an annual growth of about 15%. Southeast Asian regions expect an annual growth of 15-18%, and China plans to invest 112 trillion won by the year 2005.