Restriction of the use of hazardous substances

Since 1 July 2006 following hazardous substances are forbidden in new IT and telecommunications equipment:

• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadminium
• Hexavalent chromium
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
• Polybrominated diephenyl ethers (PBDE)

Exception:

• Electrical and electronic equipment put on the European common market before 1 July 2006
• Spare parts for the repair electrical and electronic equipment put on the European common market before 1 July 2006 and reuse of this electrical and electronic equipment
• Application of Annexe 3 to the Royal Decree of 12.10.2004

What's IT and telecommunications equipment ?

• Computers
• Printers
• Copying equipment
• Facsimile
• Telephones
• Pay telephones
• Cordless telephones
• Cellular telephones
• Answering equipment
• Any other product or equipment for transmitting sound, images or other information by telecommunication.

The instructions for use has to inform the users of electrical and electronic equipment in private households about :

• The requirement not to dispose WEEE as unsorted municipal waste and to collect WEEE separately;
• The return and collection systems available to them;
• Their role in contributing to reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE;
• The potential effects on the environment and the human health as a result of the presence of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment;
• The meaning of the symbol 'a crossed-out wheeled bin'.

This information must be available for the consumer free of charge in every point of sale of the producer or distributor. 

Since 13 August 2005, all electrical and electronic equipment must be marked appropriately :

• With the symbol 'a crossed-out wheeled bin' . In exceptional cases, where this is necessary because of the size and the function of the product, the symbol shall be printed on the packaging, on the instructions for use and on the warranty of the electrical and electronic equipment;
• The identity of the producer;
• The explicit mention that the product is put on the market after 13 August 2005.

Producer means :

• Any person who manufactures and sells electrical and electronic equipment under his own brand;
• Any person who resells under his own brand equipment produced by other suppliers (a reseller is not being regarded as a 'producer' if the brand of the producer appears on the equipment);
• Any person who imports electrical and electronic equipment on a professional basis into Belgium or put it on the market in an EU Member State.