Environmentally conscious electronics
04/01/2001
A trend driven by global regulations and aggressive marketing strategies
BY HOLLY EVANS AND RON GEDNEY
Year-to-year, the push for environmentally conscious electronics increases. While some of this momentum comes from a proliferation of legislative initiatives around the world, equally influential is an increased consumer awareness of, and preference for, perceived "green" products. This movement is coupled with aggressive marketing efforts that appeal to and help stimulate such preferences. To remain competitive, it is important to stay abreast of global environmental regulations and the "materials of concern" that are being targeted for reduction or elimination.
Government Regulations
One obvious and compelling driver for environmental improvement is the legal and regulatory environment. Although initially focused on the manufacturing facilities and the processes that generate pollutants, environmental laws are increasingly focused on products and the pollution that may be generated during their lifecycle stages. As is to be expected, regions of the world are tackling regulatory issues differently.
Europe: Currently, two waste directives that would govern the design and end-of-life management of electronic products are pending in the European Union (EU). The first, the waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive, would require electronics manufacturers to "take back" and recycle used electronics sold in the European market at their end of life. Although it is expected that the current draft will be revised as it moves through the European Commission, the WEEE directive would, if enacted, dramatically change the responsibility of manufacturers by increasing the need for manufacturers to design their products for ease of disassembly and recycling.
 Table 1. Banned materials. |
The second directive would ban the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and two brominated flame retardants in electronics sold on the European market by 2008. This directive, which industry opposes because it is not based on a scientific risk assessment, would have far-reaching impacts on the global electronics industry.
Last November, Denmark imposed a ban on lead in a wide variety of products. The new statutory order introduced a broad ban on chemical lead compounds in products and also applies to many products made of metallic lead. Some of the bans took effect March 1, 2001; others will be phased in to allow for development and testing of lead-free alternatives. Although electronic products are currently exempted, this ban demonstrates the increasing concern about eliminating lead in products. Ironically, the Danish lead ban has come under scrutiny in the EU because it was enacted without a scientific risk assessment. Furthermore, the Danish lead ban may be subject to a World Trade Organization legal challenge because of its trade implications.
 Table 2. Alert materials. |
Asia: Asia is also actively working on the waste electronics issue. In 2000, China banned the import of certain waste electronics in an effort to decrease electronic waste, and Japan amended part of its recycling law to promote the use of recycled materials. Japan's law requires manufacturers to make certain products (such as personal computers) energy-efficient and long-lasting, establish a practical repair system, and provide design flexibility for future upgrades. In addition, the law stipulates that makers are obliged to collect and recycle used PCs.
The United States: Although there has been no significant new environmental legislation in the U.S. in recent years, there are some key regulatory issues that may impact the environmental performance of the electronics industry.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to propose and finalize regulations that would discourage the industry's use of certain heavy metals, particularly lead, cadmium and mercury. For example, the EPA recently finalized a rule that reduces the toxic release inventory (TRI) reporting threshold for lead from 25,000 pounds/year to 100 pounds/year in the interest of "community right to know." This rule has been criticized for lacking scientific justification and may come under attack by the new administration.
The EPA has also included lead, mercury, cadmium and other metals on a draft "persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic" (PBT) list, which may be used to reduce the amount of heavy metals and PBT organics discharged into the environment. State and local regulatory agencies are increasingly using the EPA's PBT methodology and its list to regulate local facilities. Industry representatives plan to go to Capitol Hill to argue against the inclusion of metals on this list, which they claim is not scientifically justifiable given the fact that the methodology used to list the metals was developed for organic chemicals. Organic chemicals exhibit characteristics that differ from metals when discharged into the environment. As of the first of this year, action was still pending.
 Table 3. Core manufacturing technologies. |
Many states have been actively developing and enacting legislation that may impact the electronics industry. Most notably, the New England area has developed model mercury legislation that would require the labeling, collection and take-back of mercury-containing products, such as laptops, digital cameras and other electronic devices that use mercury-containing back-lit bulbs. This legislation was approved in resolution form at the summer 2000 meeting of the Northeast Governors, sending a strong signal that the Northeast may try to enact region-wide legislation in 2001. Legislation based on the model has already been introduced in Massachusetts and Vermont.
Many states are considering legislation that would establish a variety of collection schemes for waste electronics. South Carolina, for example, had attempted to establish an advance disposal fee (i.e., paid at the time of purchase) for cathode ray tubes (CRTs), while other states, such as North Carolina, have proposed a fee that would be payable upon disposal. Massachusetts has banned the disposal of cathode ray tubes in incinerators and landfills and has used state funds to secure recycling contracts for collected items. Minnesota was considering mandatory electronic collection and recycling schemes, similar to the WEEE directive. However, the state's office of environmental assistance has been working recently with industry to develop a voluntary collection and recycling model. The risk of state-by-state regulations is that it creates a patchwork quilt of environmental laws that could make it difficult for one product to meet the requirements of all North American markets.
In addition to laws and regulations, there are a number of governmental incentives for improved environmental performance. Government purchasing is increasingly being linked to environmental attributes and/or environmental management system (EMS) certification. The U.S. government has awarded various grants to implement new technology with an environmental benefit. Voluntary design for the environment (DfE) programs administered by the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics have developed assessments of newer, cleaner substitute technologies for the printed wiring board and computer display industries.
The Customer as a Driver
An increasing number of industrial customers are asking suppliers either to eliminate certain materials or to provide certain environmental attributes. Consumer electronics are beginning to be marketed based on their environmental attributes. Consumers throughout the world now expect to see the Energy Star label on their computers and energy efficiency disclosure on their refrigerators. In Europe, consumers are purchasing washing machines based on water usage; in Japan, customers are seeing products that do not contain lead solders or are highly recyclable.
The Japanese electronics industry and select European firms are trying to increase market share by offering products with positive environmental attributes.
 Table 4. Component manufacturing technologies. |
Major Japanese manufacturers, with support from the ministry of international trade and industry (MITI), have announced aggressive environmental goals, which they plan to implement by April 1, 2001, including lead-free interconnect systems, bromine-free flame retardants, chlorine-free plastics, highly recyclable products and energy efficient products.
Hitachi, Matsushita, Toshiba and Sony have all made commitments to meet specific environmental metrics in their products, and most major Japanese OEMs and component suppliers are ISO 14000 certified. Several OEMs have already introduced "environmentally preferred products" into production and are marketing heavily on these attributes.
Materials of Concern
Following on the heels of the adoption of the ISO 14000 worldwide and Europe's Eco-management and audit scheme standards, European and Asian companies are beginning to require a questionnaire or checklist on the EMS status of supplier companies. There are a number of lists of banned or restricted materials, often called "materials of concern." These materials include those prohibited from use by regulatory, legislative or health concerns, along with materials that have been either banned or restricted by regulation or industrial customers, or for which special interest groups have expressed concern. In addition, there are materials that are problematic when seeking eco-labels in the various countries and regions.
Industry often breaks the materials of concern into two distinct lists: banned materials and alert materials. Banned materials are prohibited by regulations in one or more countries or have been banned by industrial customers (Table 1). Alert materials are under review by government agencies or customers, or the materials have the characteristics of other banned or alert materials (Table 2).
Recent efforts have focused on standardizing these lists or at least the process used to generate them. The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) has developed a method for exchanging environmental data between supplier and customer. Its Material Declaration Guide is the industry's first attempt to standardize the material declaration process for both suppliers and customers. This guide is available on the EIA Web site (http://www.eia.org).
Several of the identified materials of concern are commonly found in electronic products, and eliminating them will require significant efforts to identify, develop and qualify alternatives.
Flame Retardants: Flame retardants are found in printed wiring boards, plastic housings and cable insulation. The most common approach to flame retardancy in organic materials is to use halogenated, usually brominated, materials. Some inorganic materials, such as antimony trioxide, are also used either alone or in conjunction with a brominated material. Two brominated materials, polybiphenyl and polybiphenyl-ether, are known to be bioaccumulative and have been targeted by the WEEE directive. In addition, concern has been raised over the use of any brominated materials because of the possible generation of dioxins during incineration. Brominated flame retardants used in PWBs typically are not regulated. However, non-brominated alternative material systems are being developed and introduced into products with care, as undesirable material characteristics may be introduced.
 Table 5. Cross-cutting technologies. |
Lead: Lead is found in solder and interconnects, batteries, paints, piezoelectric devices, discrete components and cathode ray tube glass. Although solders used by the electronics industry represents less than two percent of overall lead usage, Japanese firms have made commitments to eliminate lead solders in their products so that they will not be classified as "hazardous" during recycling in Japan. The EU will also likely restrict the use of lead in electronics, although exemptions for certain applications may be possible.
Cadmium: Cadmium is found in batteries, paints and pigments and is classified as a known or suspected human carcinogen. Most major electronic firms are working to eliminate its use, except in batteries where there are well-defined recycling procedures to prevent inappropriate disposal.
Hexavalent chromium: This material is found in some pigments and paints (although applications are decreasing), and on fasteners and metal parts where it is used for corrosion resistance. The EU's End-of-Life Vehicle Directive (ELV) bans hexavalent chromium from landfills after 2003. Therefore, automotive OEMs are either banning its use or strongly encouraging alternatives. These alternatives currently cannot consistently pass corrosion resistance specifications.
Mercury: Mercury is found in the flat panel displays of laptop computers, digital cameras, fax machines and flat panel televisions. Mercury is considered a highly toxic and bioaccumulative chemical. Currently, there are few alternatives to the use of mercury-containing lamps in flat panel displays. Furthermore, these lamps provide significant energy efficiency benefits. These benefits must be evaluated against any mercury phase-out in electronic products, because emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants constitute almost 90 percent of all mercury emissions into the environment.
Technology Needs
Continued improvements in the environmental characteristics of electrical and electronic products will require the development and implementation of new technologies to improve energy efficiency, eliminate hazardous or potentially harmful substances where feasible, and increase both the reusability and the recyclability of products at their end of life. Tables 3 though 5 summarize the environmental issues that need to be addressed for core manufacturing technology, component manufacturing technologies, and "cross-cutting" technologies. Dates reflect requirements for North American firms to compete in Europe. These dates should be advanced by two years to compete in Japan.
Elimination of Materials of Concern: While most of the materials used in electrical and electronic products are safe for users of the products, some materials may be hazardous in the manufacturing process or contribute to environmental problems at the end of product life. In most cases, these materials are used in electronic products because functional requirements cannot be met with alternate materials. For example, the high electrical conductivity, low melting point and ductility of lead-based solder make it an ideal interconnect material for connecting devices on printed wiring board assemblies. Similarly, the flame-retardant properties of some halogenated materials make them excellent additives to flammable polymer materials when used in electrical equipment where a spark might ignite a fire.
While some of the materials of concern can be eliminated by selecting commercially available alternatives, there are four materials that are the subject of significant R&D efforts to develop feasible alternatives:
- Lead-free interconnect systems
- Bromine-free flame retardants
- Antimony trioxide-free flame retardants
- Chlorine-free plastics.
Recycling End-of-Life Products
Efforts to increase the reuse and recycling of end-of-life electronic products have been growing within the electronics industry in all sectors. There are also efforts to reduce packaging or, in some cases, provide reusable packaging. Products containing restricted or banned materials are more costly and difficult to recycle because of regional, restrictive legislation. Thus, many OEMs and industrial customers are designing products that have reduced end-of-life and total life cycle environmental impacts. OEMs must endeavor to obtain as much environmentally related information as possible from each level of supplier, and even their suppliers' suppliers. To make this job easier, OEMs are attempting to develop DfE metrics and tools that can be applied by suppliers. This trend will accelerate as more regions pass "take-back" legislation to reduce the burden on landfills. EIA's Material Declaration Template is one example of an industry-wide supply chain disclosure tool.
The growing demand for electrical and electronic appliances will also create more products requiring disposal. In order to avoid landfill and incineration of huge amounts of discarded products, it will be necessary to develop a cost-effective infrastructure for reuse and recycling of electronic equipment. While many of the materials commonly found in electronic products can be easily recycled (e.g., metals, printed wiring board assemblies), several materials commonly found in electronic products present special challenges. These include plastics and leaded glass from televisions and monitors.
While many plastics are theoretically recyclable, in practice only a small percentage of plastics are recycled into new products. Unlike recycling of metals, recycling of plastics typically requires a very clean and pure stream of materials. Most electronic products destined for disposal have been in the home or office environment for several years. In many cases the, plastics are contaminated with dirt, labels, adhesives, paints and other materials that impede the recycling process. Compounding the problem, electronic products may contain many different plastic types and older plastics may contain banned flame-retardants or pigments. In most recycling scenarios, it is necessary to sort out individual plastic types prior to recycling. While many materials are coded and marked in current products, manual sorting of plastics based on these markings is expensive and often inaccurate.
Several new technologies must be developed to facilitate the recycling of plastics. First, automated sorting processes are required to facilitate plastics identification and separation. Second, new processes must be developed to clean the materials and remove paints and labels in an economical manner. New secondary and tertiary uses must be identified for plastics where quality or cost considerations preclude reuse in electrical and electronic products.
Information Management: The final area where new technology will be required to improve the environmental characteristics of electronic products is in information management tools. Of primary importance is the development of standards and requirements for collection, documentation and transmittal of information about the material content of components, assemblies and systems. Not only is this information needed to effectively and safely dispose of products at end of life, it is required by systems manufacturers and their suppliers to respond to the growing number of environmental inquiries related to their products.
Along with information on the content of components, assemblies and products, it will be necessary to develop standardized toxicological and environmental profiles for materials and processes used in electronic products, along with their alternatives. To understand the complex decision and trade-off process used in the design of products for minimum environmental burden, new life cycle assessment and evaluation tools will be required. These environmental assessment tools will need to be integrated into the mechanical design tools used by designers to develop products.
Conclusions and Recommendations
North America lags Japan and Europe in research, development and implementation of environmentally preferred materials and components. Vertical integration has aided Japan in establishing a leadership position in implementing environmentally preferred technology into their products. North American firms must become more proactive on implementing product environmental attributes to remain competitive. It is not sufficient to develop the technology - implementation and marketing are also required.
Industry-wide projects currently underway include NEMI's lead-free assembly project, which was formed in 1999. This project is focused on helping North American companies develop the capability to produce lead-free products by 2001, with an eye toward total lead elimination by 2004. In addition, NEMI and the Interconnection Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have recently organized the non-brominated flame retardant project to help understand the implications and requirements of various flame retardants that might be used in lead-free assemblies.
AP
HOLLY EVANS, director of environmental affairs at the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), can be contacted at 2500 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201-3834; 703-907-7576; Fax: 703-907-7501; E-mail: [email protected].
RON GEDNEY, vice president of operations for the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI), can be contacted at 2214 Rock Hill Road, Suite 110, Herndon, VA 20170-4212; 703-834-2084; Fax: 703-834-2735; E-mail: [email protected].