News
LONDON, Dec. 16 -- The U.K. government has made available a series of publications on the WEEE and RoHS Directives, including best practice case studies.
The guidance is available for free at www.envirowise.gov.uk/electronics.
Among the suggestions:
- Talk to, or join, a recycling industry consortium.
- Talk to a recycler about the requirements and costs of recycling your own product, with a view to re-design.
- Find out what happens at the end-of-life for your product.
- Establish a dialogue with distributors and retailers to establish if your own take-back scheme is possible, or what the best options are for your business.
- Look at current contracts, both for equipment used and sold, to identify any possible transferral of responsibility.
- Evaluate customer opinions about who is responsible for WEEE and see if it is possible to negotiate
- Evaluate B2B takeback obligations if selling equipment to businesses that are likely to have old stock which will need to be collected and recycled.
- Re-evaluate your business model.
- Identify any market opportunities, such as recycling, logistics.
- Consider a move from a selling to a renting business model.
- Evaluate design and re-design opportunities.
For additional information:
- U.K.'s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), RoHS guidelines: http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/
- KPMG report on WEEE: www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/kpmgreport.pdf
- DTI commissioned assessment on WEEE strategies in other countries: www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/aeatreport.pdf
- DTI RoHS compliance reports: ROHS Compliance Executive Summary.pdf: www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/; ROHS Compliance Full Report.pdf: www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/
- Centre for Sustainable Design: www.cfsd.org.uk
- Sustainable Design Network: www.sustainabledesignnet.org.uk
- EC's Integrated Product Policy: www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/ipp/home.htm
- United Nations UNIDO training kit on Cleaner Production: www.unido.org/doc/9753
- Lifecycle analysis tools: www.pre.nl
- Waste Resource and Action Programme: www.wrap.org.uk
- Intellect: www.intellectuk.org/campaigns/environment/default.asp
- Unep sustainable consumption: www.uneptie.org/pc/sustain
- Environment Agency life cycle analysis tool: www.environment-agency.gov.uk
- Sustainable Business: www.sustainablebusiness.com
- Design Council: www.design-council.org.uk
HOUSTON, Dec. 15, 2004 — Microtek Inc. (microtek.co.jp/english/) has chosen BP Microsystems' (bpmicro.com) equipment for a new programming services facility in Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan.
The 130-employee company plans and designs parts that are then commissioned for manufacture in separate facilities. It prefers automated programming systems because of reduced bent leads during handling and better ESD isolation. Additionally, it offers visual inspection services and component marking services.
Microtek's new facility, the Atsugi Programming Center, uses programmers, vision inspection machines and marking machines. The company anticipates programming over six million devices this year.
Dykes will continue to advise Flextronics through March.
"I cannot begin to tell you how important Bob has been to the development of Flextronics as a leading company in the EMS industry, both as a director and as CFO," said Michael Marks, chief executive. "Bob served as my most trusted advisor during the rapid development of the company over the past seven years."
Smach has been Flextronics senior vice president of finance since its acquisition of the Dii Group in April 2000.
Press Releases
- Luminovo Partners with Sluicebox to Offer an Industry-First Instant Product Carbon Footprint for Electronics
- The Assembly Show and SMTAI Announce Colocation in October
- SIA Applauds CHIPS Act Incentives for GlobalWafers Projects in Texas and Missouri
- ROCKA Solutions Continues Expansion in Brazil with New Location in Manaus