WEEE Regulations and ROHS Compliance

WEEE Regualtions

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations (WEEE), EU Directive 2002/96/EC, were adopted into UK law on 2nd January 2007 with full implementation from 1st July 2007. These regulations require that electrical and electronic equipment, when being disposed of at the end of its useful life in an EU Member State, must be recycled and/or disposed of in accordance with the EU directive as it is applied in local laws of that State. Failing to recycle WEEE has significant affects on the environment and human health.

The legislation aims to make producers pay for the collection, treatment and recovery of waste electrical equipment. The regulations also mean that suppliers of equipment like high street shops and internet retailers must allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge.

The amount of WEEE we throw away is increasing by around 5% each year, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the UK. Much of the UKs WEEE ends up in landfill, where the lead and other toxins it contains can cause soil and water contamination. This can have a harmful effect on natural habitat, wildlife and also human health.

Many electrical items that we throw away can be repaired or recycled. Recycling items helps to save our natural finite resources and also reduces the environmental and health risks associated with sending electrical goods to landfill. To ensure that your WEEE is recycled in accordance with the regulations, you must ensure that the goods are not put in the bin, but are separately disposed of by taking the WEEE to your local designated collection facility. This would normally be your local civic amenity site (recycling centre).

Distributors of new Electric and Electronic Equipment (EEE) have a part to play in reducing the amount of WEEE going into landfill sites.

Railwayscenics are obliged under these regulations to offer our customers free take-back of their WEEE on a like-for-like basis when they buy a new Electrical or Electronic product from us. For example, if a customer bought a controller from us we would accept their old controller, and prevent it going into a landfill site by disposing of it safely. Customers must return their WEEE item to us within 28 days of purchasing their new item. No refunds will be given to cover postage costs to us.

Under the WEEE Regulations, all new electrical goods should now be marked with the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol. Goods are marked with this symbol to show that they were produced after 13th August 2005, and should be disposed of separately from normal household waste so that they can be recycled.

RoHS

Products placed on the market on or after July 1, 2006 may not contain more than the specified limits of below listed restricted substances.

Restricted substances and maximum concentration values tolerated by weight in homogeneous materials (as per Annex II of Directive 2011/65/EU).

Railwayscenics policy is only to designate a product as RoHS compliant when we are confident that the product is fully compliant. We use a simple Yes and No designation on our web site and the meaning of these designations is as follows:

RoHS Compliant YES

Based on information provided by our suppliers, this product does NOT contain the substances restricted by the RoHS legislation at levels over the maximum concentration values.

No RoHS Designation

Products that are outside the scope of the RoHS legislation and products for which we do not have enough information from our suppliers to confidently confirm their RoHS compliance status have no designation on our web site. Customers that wish to purchase a RoHS compliant version of any product that is not designated as RoHS compliant YES should contact us or check available alternatives on our web site.

REACH

The Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & restriction of Chemicals (REACH), is a European Union regulation that came into force on the 1st June 2007.

The aim of reach is to provide a high level of protection to human health and the environment from the use of chemicals. This is done by making manufacturers and importers who place these chemicals on the market responsible for understanding and managing the risks associated with their usage.

With regards to these regulations we do not import any substances in pure form and do not import products composed of these substances.