## Column : Reduction and Transparency of Hazardous Substances Contained in Products

A major objective of waste management is to prevent environmental pollution by removing hazardous substances contained in waste. However, it is preferable to minimize hazardous substances contained in waste that is brought into a waste management facility or to minimize the substances that cause secondary pollution. Namely, to reduce hazardous substances in society as a whole, hazardous substances need to be controlled at the product manufacturing stage.

With this preventive point of view, the EU enforced the RoHS Directive in July 2006. RoHS is an abbreviation for “Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment”, which regulates the content of specified hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. The following six hazardous substances are specified: Pb (lead), Cd (cadmium), Cr(VI) (hexavalent chromium), Hg (mercury), PBB (polybromobiphenyl) and PBDE (polybromodiphenyl ether). Excluding exceptional cases, no product whose content of any of the six substances exceeds the criteria value can be sold within the EU’s borders.

In Japan, too, various activities are conducted to promote proper recycling of products that contain hazardous substances, such as the management of substances that, if contained in products, may degrade the quality of recycled resources or damage the recycling process, and the provision of appropriate information by indication, etc. Specifically, based on the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilities of Resources, it became mandatory from July 2006 to manage specified chemical substances contained in applicable products and to take measures for providing information, including indication, by a method based on J-Moss (JIS C0950: Marking for the presence of specific chemical substances for electrical and electronic equipment). While the RoHS Directive regulates the sale of products that breach the standard, the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilities of Resources made it mandatory to indicate the

orange mark for specified chemical substances' being contained and to provide information via a website if a product exceeds the criterial value in the content of specified chemical substances (the same substances as the RoHS Directive). In addition, while the RoHS Directive applies basically to all electrical and electronic equipment, the scope of the Law for the Promotion of Effective Utilities of Resources is limited to seven products, including air conditioners and refrigerators.

Mark for specified chemical substances' being contained

collecting segregated waste batteries and fluorescent lamps and consigning these to waste management businesses for treatment and disposal (recovery and recycling of mercury). In 2005, 200 kg of mercury was recovered from 5,000 tons of waste fluorescent lamps (see Table 2-2).

Waste fluorescent bulbs are shredded in the course of their disposal so that mercury will not be dispersed in the environment and are separated into glass, aluminum base parts, fluorescent material and sludge, which contains mercury. Glass and aluminum parts are recycled as valuable resources while the sludge containing mercury is subjected to heat treatment to recover the mercury. Recovered mercury is refined and recycled as metal mercury or a mercury compound for fluorescent lamp material (Fig. 2-15).

## (2) Dioxins

Dioxins are by-products that are generated naturally when material is incinerated. Various activities have been conducted to date against dioxins being generated when waste is incinerated (Fig. 2-16).

As measures against dioxins, in 1990 the Japanese government laid down guidelines for preventing the generation of dioxins related to waste incinerating facilities (the old guidelines), which were revised in 1997 as new guidelines. According to these guidelines, measures have been taken to control waste incinerating facilities. In 1999 the Law concerning Special Measures against Dioxins was enacted and in order to prevent and reduce environmental pollution by dioxins, an environmental quality standard was established as the basis for

Fig. 2-16 Chemical Structure of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxin

Note: A chlorine atom is bound to the numbered section.