Major home-appliance makers in Taiwan are boosting their efforts to develop more environment-friendly products in a bid to smooth the way for exports to Europe, which is to implement stricter environment-protection rules for electrical and electronic equipment in July next year. The new rules include the EC Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the EC Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (ROHS).

One big local firm, Sampo Co., recently invested about NT$137 million (US$4 million at NT$33.6:US$1) in Cycle Pentane (using no CFCs or HCFCs) production equipment for the manufacture of air-conditioner and refrigerator products. Another leader in the line, Matsushita Electric (Taiwan) Co., has set up a green-appliance R&D center.

Industry sources say that the European directives will require all EU member nations to set up a recycling mechanism for waste electrical and electronic equipment, and to institute regulations limiting the weight of such recycled equipment to under four kilograms per head of population per year. The ROHS directive will also ban the use of four heavy metals (lead, nickel, amalgam, and hexavalent chromium) and two anti-flame materials (PBB and PBDE) in the production of electrical and electronic equipment.

Sampo says that it has been adjusting its corporate environment-protection and waste-recycling strategies in order to meet the higher standards and avoid barriers to future exports.

The company also states that its new Cycle Pentane production equipment brings its production processes for air conditioner and refrigerator products into conformity with the strictest international environmental protection standards.

Matsushita (Taiwan) reports that its Japanese parent company has mapped out a project, dubbed Green Plan 2010, that will enable the Taiwan subsidiary to produce a high ratio of products for export to Europe. Part of this project is the new green appliance R&D center, which will concentrate on developing products that meet the strictest European environmental protection rules. As a result, the company claims, from April next year none of its products will contain any toxic substances.