'Green' White Papers from Green Lighting LED™
You've heard of White papers, authoritative tools used to educate readers and help people make decisions. We want to offer something a little different based upon the same principle, Green White Papers from Green Lighting LED. Led lighting technology is low energy, green technology. This is your one stop source for everything concerning LED Lighting.
RoHS Compliance and Green Lighting LED Products
LED products (LED bulbs and LED lighting fixtures) are fully compliant with the RoHS directive currently in force across Europe and North America. Lighting users, lighting designers, specifiers, architects and manufacturers working and using the Green Lighting LED products are assured they are compliant with the legislation and contain no lead, mercury or toxic gasses.
Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive or commonly referred to as RoHS was adopted in February 2003 by the European Union. The RoHS directive took effect on July 1, 2006, and is required to be enforced and become law in each member state. This directive restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment. It is closely linked with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) 2002/96/EC which sets collection, recycling and recovery targets for electrical goods and is part of a legislative initiative to solve the problem of huge amounts of toxic e-waste.
RoHS is often referred to as the lead-free directive, but it restricts the use of the following six substances:
1. Lead (Pb)
2. Mercury (Hg)
3. Cadmium (Cd)
4. Hexavalent chromium (Cr6 )
5. Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
6. Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)
PBB and PBDE are flame retardants used in several plastics.
The maximum permitted concentrations are 0.1% or 1000 ppm (except for cadmium, which is limited to 0.01% or 100 ppm) by weight of homogeneous material. This means that the limits do not apply to the weight of the finished product, or even to a component, but to any single substance that could (theoretically) be separated mechanically - for example, the sheath on a cable or the tinning on a component lead.
RoHS does not require any specific product labeling, however many manufacturers have adopted their own compliance marks to reduce confusion. Visual indicators in use today include explicit "RoHS compliant" labels, green leaves, check marks, and "PB-Free" markings.
North America
California has passed SB 20: Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003, or EWRA. This law prohibits the sale of electronic devices after January 1, 2007, that are prohibited from being sold under the EU RoHS directive, but across a much narrower scope that includes LCDs, CRTs, and the like and only covers the four heavy metals restricted by RoHS. EWRA also has a restricted material disclosure requirement.
Effective January 1, 2010, the California Lighting Efficiency and Toxics Reduction Act applies RoHS to general purpose lights, i.e. "lamps, bulbs, tubes, or other electric devices that provide functional illumination for indoor residential, indoor commercial, and outdoor use."
Other US states and cities are debating whether to adopt similar laws, and there are several states that have mercury and PBDE bans already. This has significant impact on fluorescent lights which contain mercury and heavy metals, making them considered a hazardous waste for disposal.
LED products (LED bulbs and LED lighting fixtures) are fully compliant with the RoHS directive currently in force across Europe and North America. LED lighting solutions contain no heavy metals and when they finally exceed their recommended end life of 50,000 hours can be disposed of or recycled without environmental concerns.