ROHS - Green or Madness ?

[poynton]

In a thread started today :-

I have a box full of electrolitic caps most of which are audio grade to some extent and some high quality parts - the list is below. They were going in the skip at work because they are not Rohs compliant (How green is that).

How much perfectly 'good' stuff is being thrown into landfill in the name of being 'green'?

In the UK, once it is in the dumpster or council rubbish depot, it is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to get their hands on it !!!


Andy

[DcibeL]

RoHS is for the most part just the government intervening and making decisions on things it doesn't understand. Unfortunately, this happens all too often.

Thankfully where I work only some of our product is sold to Europe, so we can still use non-RoHS stock up on products not sold to Europe.

For those who have ordered crossover parts from Solen in the past few months, you may have noticed the parts ending in "NR" being sold at a discount. These are the non-RoHS compliant parts that Solen is getting rid of. See the "On Sale" page for details.

[Eva]

ROHS is a big no-no, it was created by politicians that do not (want to) understand the real world problems. They are trying to make dumpster-ready throw-and-forget consumer electronics by prohibiting the use of a few toxic substances, which is a very naive approach that will never work.

The truth is that electronic equipment will always contain toxic substances, and semi-precious metals like copper, gold, silver, tin, etc... whose price is climbing every day because we are running out of natural reserves (that we will be forced to start recovering from dumpsters soon). That's why every piece of electronic gear must be recycled, like every car.

ROHS should have been conceived as "Recycling of Harmful Substances" rather than "Reduction of Harmful Substances"

The following link explains why we are actually going back to lead-tin solder and avoiding lead-free solder in some applications :
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6477864...&rid=203930815

[Nordic]

RoHS can never be green, as it takes more energy to solder than standard lead based products....

[Geek]

If they REALLY wanted to "get the lead out" (har, har), they'd go after automobile batteries.

Economically, if Lithium Ion technology was in the demand for the auto market, with big auto money to develop it further, it would be less than a decade before they would be comparable $.

[SY]

RoHS is for the most part just the government intervening and making decisions on things it doesn't understand.

It understands this very well. The purpose of RoHS, like so much of EU legislation, is to favor large established well-connected companies over small operations and start-ups.

[droptop]

iirc, 98% of a lead acid battery is recycled into subsequent batteries- its quite amazing how much of it is reused.

[phase_accurate]

The purpose of RoHS, like so much of EU legislation, is to favor large established well-connected companies over small operations and start-ups.

That is my opinion for a long time already. Fortunately we are not (yet ) a member of this strange organisation. Unfortunately our rulings and laws are strrongly influenced by them anyway !!!!

Years ago they introduced new EMC rulings that were dropped again later on, when small companies were already killed by these.
I can't remember who it was but someone (from this forum) once metioned that EMC means Eliminate Minor Competitors.

Regards

Charles

P.S.: Don't such things belong to politics which in turn are forbidden to discuss about on this forum ????

[jackinnj]

you can continue to ship product you have in inventory under transition rules.

here Stateside we are getting rid of the plain vanilla incandescent bulb -- replacing it with one which contains mercury. the appealing nature of incandescent is its warm spectrum -- i can hardly wait until they get Hilary under a CFL.

we also have the 3.8 litre flush toilet -- which costs 5X that of an ordinary toilet. one guy here in NJ had a contract with the state to pull out all of the old terlets in housing projects in Newark and replace them with the 1 gal variety. this is what government does best, reallocate money to crooked politicians and their relatives.

[SY]

Don't such things belong to politics which in turn are forbidden to discuss about on this forum ????

It's definitely approaching the danger zone. I'll try to keep on the right side of the line, but if one of the other moderators slaps me down, I'll understand completely. Always wondered what the inside of the SinBin looks like...

Jack, have you red Rod Elliot's rants about CFLs? My lab lighting is CFL now, and to make a low noise measurement, I have to turn them all off.