Summary and conclusions

Rapport om RoHS-spørgeskemaundersøgelsen

During the winter 2007/2008, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency had an electronic questionnaire examination carried out regarding the knowledge of and work with observance of the RoHS Regulation among Danish producers and importers of electrical and electronic equipment. PricewaterhouseCoopers has assisted with the preparation, dissipating and carrying into effect of the questionnaire examination which forms part of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency’s campaign concerning Danish companies’ observance of the RoHS Regulation. The questionnaire examination has been available from 19 November 2007 to 25 January 2008 at the homepage ROHSGUIDEN.dk. This is run by PricewaterhouseCoopers and COWI, Danish Standards and In-Jet ApS cooperatively.

In order to prompt examination participation, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency has encouraged a number of relevant players, primarily trade organisations, to inform their members of the examination. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency and ROHSGUIDEN.dk have moreover prompted their network and stakeholders respectively.

A total of 66 companies have participated in the questionnaire examination. Within the RoHS target group, these 66 companies constitute a representative group in proportion to the types of companies, sizes and product groups represented. The overall results and conclusions from the examination show that:

The majority of companies are aware of the existence of the RoHS Regulation - fewer are aware of the exceptions, though
Half of the companies believe that it is predominantly easy to ascertain, whether their products are covered by the Regulation, but less easy to ascertain, whether their products are covered by an exception
The companies primarily seek information on new legislation through their trade organisation, the European Commission and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency
More than half of the companies find publicly available homepages to be very useful
Half of the companies express a “very high” degree of certainty in terms of their products observing RoHS
In order to specify their environmental requirements, two-thirds of the companies employ a Code of Conduct or the like in connection with their suppliers
More than two-thirds of the companies use statements from suppliers, thereby confirming the observance of RoHS
The companies make more use of supplier visits and test from analysis companies outside than within the EU
In order to ensure observance of RoHS, more than half the companies have had to increase the cooperation with their suppliers.