By Sustainability team
19th May 2010.
15:20
At Sony Ericsson we have always been proactive to find new solutions to unwanted substances in our products and we have therefore already phased out brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from our products.
During this week there is a meeting in the EU parliament regarding the proposals that have been made for the Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. One of the hot topics have been if further substances should be restricted in electronics in the future, and the discussion has now moved on to whether all BFR as well as PVC should be restricted.
Our concern has always been around the problems they cause in the waste handling process, where they can form highly toxic substances – such as dioxins – when incinerated under poor conditions. This is why we started our phase out from the beginning and also why we think they should be banned.
Today Sony Ericsson published a press release on the revision of the current RoHS directive and is supporting the inclusion of all BFR and PVC as banned substances in the directive. Sony Ericsson has, together with an alliance of companies and public interest organisations been lobbying for a strengthened legislation where these substances should be banned from 2015 in electronics.
The RoHS directive is an EU directive that restricts the use of four heavy metals and two types of brominated flame retardants in electronics. The directive you can find here.
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