Environmental pollution, particularly in land fills, from discarded electronic equipment (e-waste) or “waste electrical and electronic equipment” (WEEE), has been an increasing concern worldwide. Pollution occurs due to leakage of hazardous materials contained in the discarded equipment. The European Union has passed two related regulations to improve e-waste management and to limit the presence of hazardous materials in the waste.
One is the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive 2002/95/EC (popularly called the Lead free RoHS) which limits the presence of six hazardous materials in electrical and electronic equipment. The other is the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive 2002/96/EC. The WEEE directive aims at minimization of the impact of e-waste on the environment, by increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfills. EU members are required to incorporate the provisions of both the RoHS and the WEEE are directives into their individual legislations.
Effective August 13, 2005, the WEEE directive, excludes equipment related to state security, arms and ammunition and war materials However it does cover thirteen categories of e-waste:
1. Large household appliances – excludes ODS fridges/freezers
2. Small household appliances (e.g. toaster, kettle, vacuum cleaner)
3. IT and telecommunications equipment
4. Consumer equipment (e.g. videos, radio, hi-fi) – excludes CRTs
5. Lighting equipment – excluding flourescent tubes
6. Electrical and electronic tools (e.g. drills, saws, sewing machines)
7. Toys, leisure and sports equipment (e.g. electric trains, video games)
8. Medical Devices – excludes contaminated items
9. Monitoring and control instruments (e.g. smoke detector, thermostats)
10. Automatic dispensers (e.g. vending machines)
11. Cooling equipment including category 10 devices with cooling
12. Display equipment (CRTs) including plasma and LCD
13. Gas discharge lamps (e.g. flourescent tubes)
The WEEE Directive is based on article 175 of the European Commission (EC) Treaty which established the European Union. This directive makes producers responsible for financing the collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment. It also seeks to oblige distributors to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge. This provision is based on the precept that the polluter should pay and applies irrespective of the selling technique, including distance selling.
Another aspect is the encouragement of product designs that facilitate dismantling and recovery. Producers are also required to provide reuse and treatment information on their products. This is to facilitate the reuse of components and to ensure the correct and environmentally sound treatment of WEEE, including maintenance, upgrade, refurbishment and recycling. EU member states are empowered to include additional products to the WEEE directive.
There are also provisions for and minimum standards for authorized collection and recycling sites. The directive also has certain labeling requirements such as the name of the producer, date code and a “Do Not Landfill” mark which consists of a crossed out wheel bin with a bar underneath indicating that the product was placed on the market after August 13, 2005.
The European Community has taken the lead on environmental issues and often, a role model for other nations. Many nations including the United States and China are considering WEEE legislation. The federal US legislation is expected to be in line with the EU WEEE. However, the draft legislation of the China WEEE, whose details are still sketchy, does not appear to be so. The China WEEE, when it comes, is likely to pose serious challenges for suppliers.

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Have you thought of building a DIY solar panel for your home? Many homeowners have done it and are no longer concerned about the ever-increasing electricity bills. This is because they have made their own solar energy panel.

You can indeed create this source of renewable energy at home. These days, guides on DIY solar panels are readily available in bookstores and on the Internet. There must be so many it becomes difficult to know which one to buy. Surely not all of them are good. So what should you be looking for?

The best place to start your research is on the Internet. Many websites are replete with instructional manuals and construction plans to help you build a solar panel that can last for decades. You need to be cautious though, because not every resource is reliable. Of those that are reliable, not all are easily understood.

Most guides are stuffed full with fillers so a book that’s really worth 20 pages of content can be sold for the price of a book with 150 pages! A good DIY guide is a diamond in the rough – you need to spend effort to find it. Here are 5 points to keep in mind as you begin your search:

1. The guide should be easy to understand, with technical jargon made clear and simple enough for your grandma to understand. Good guides have step-by-step instructions that are fully illustrated. In this way, you can follow each step with confidence even if you’re new to DIY work. After all, if you bought a guide that you don’t understand or is too difficult to follow, what are your chances of building a DIY solar panel?

2. A good guide includes professionally-made videos that instruct you exactly what to do. When you have a video showing you every single detail, chances are you’ll be successful in building your own solar energy panel. Even if you don’t understand the material at first, it takes less effort to review a video than read a book stuffed with theories and equations.

3. Many products on the Internet offer an unconditional money back guarantee — it reveals volumes about the quality of the product. You should expect to have this as well.

4. Technical support should be available via phone or email. Even with the best instructional guide on earth, there will be questions in your mind that remains unanswered. Experts can solve your problem much faster than when you try to figure things out yourself.

5. Finally, the price of the material should not cost more than a hundred dollars. But this is not the most important factor as good materials pay for themselves quickly. If you think good guides cost a lot, wait till you buy a bad one.

With a good instructional guide, you can build your own solar energy panels easily. And you’ll be able to save tons of money that would otherwise be used to pay for electricity bills.

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Do you want to learn to build a wind turbine off grid DIY home electric system? Today, many people have discovered that they can enjoy many benefits such as producing their own free electricity from home and saving more money (sometimes even to the extent that they can sell the excessively produced electricity back to the power company). 1. How Much Does It Cost To Make a DIY Home Electric System? This can be done entirely with less than $200 in total costs and is actually very easy to build and use to live off grid compared to what most people think. I highly recommend all homeowners to switch to using renewable energy and move away from fossil fuels as a way to conserve the environment and save more money. 2. Downloading a Build Your Own DIY Home Electric System at Home Guide With a step by step online guide, I was able to get the full list of all the materials that I needed and also the list of all the locations where I can get them for cheap. The plans taught me how to build wind turbine as well as solar powered systems. 3. How Does a DIY Home Electric System Generate Free Energy? A wind turbine system creates energy when its blades get rotated by the wind and solar energy from the sun allows the panels to generate electricity. Because the DC motor, one of the main components required, can take a few days to arrive, you will want to make sure that you order it as soon as you can. 4. What Do You Need to Build a DIY Wind Turbine Off Grid System? You will first learn to decide how many you need based on the requirements of your home. You are going to need a couple of basic tools like screwdrivers and also a good amount of workspace to assemble all the parts together.

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Are you looking for a complete set of DIY electricity from home instructions?Let me tell you something…I trawled the internet for a fairly long time looking for some reliable instructions but to no avail! See, in order to generate electricity from home, you need to build a solar panel to capture sunlight and create direct current (DC) electricity from it.Now I wanted a solar panel to power my work shed but the cost is too much for an old timer like me, hence I decided to go on the DIY path.I was made to understand that an average Joe can actually build the panel from the ground up and that DIY electricity from home instructions can easily be found online!That’s jolly good news right?Well…Not quite actually.Quality instructions to help you generate electricity from home are hard to find on the web. The instructions I discovered online were poorly written and laden with confusing steps and diagrams!So this is the one thing that every beginner must avoid… If you want make your own solar panel and generate DIY electricity for your home as quickly as possible, then please DO NOT refer to printed instructions ALONE, especially if you’re a beginner.You’ll only be wasting your time and money with such instructions. Instead here’s a useful tip to help you start on the right track…Learn from watching step-by-step videos in combination with pictorial manuals That’s right!I successfully made my first solar panel thru the aid of videos and pictorial manuals! The videos were presented by a DIY solar panel expert by the name of Brian Clark. His clear step-by step instructions helped me a great deal!I believe every beginner would have no trouble understanding his instructions.So please keep this in mind folks. Don’t waste your time on DIY electricity from home instructions that are questionable in quality. Make sure you get full video instructions to help you out.

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So I hear you want to learn how to produce solar electricity for homes?Why? Is it because you wish to reduce your monthly electric bills? Perhaps, you’d like to contribute your bit for the environment?Okay listen, no matter what your intentions may be, there are 3 questions you must ask yourself before embarking on a DIY solar electricity for homes project.Here are those questions:1. Do you enjoy DIY projects?I know a few folks who were so eager to build their own panels to generate electricity. They bought all the necessary components and instructions, but once they got to the assembling part…They get cold feet!So please take note…If you are the sort of person who enjoys DIY project, then you’ll probably do just fine! In fact, with the right instructional material, solar electricity for homes DIY project can be a real blast!2.  Are you willing to spend some time to finish the project?If you’re a total beginner, then expect to spend a few days putting together your very own solar electricity panel.It’s quite simple really but in my experience, your maiden project would probably frustrate you a bit. However, if you have the proper instructions at hand, you will be laughing!This brings me to…3. Do you learn better by reading printed instructions or viewing step-by-step videos?Personally, I would go for both although I tend to lean more towards the latter!My first DIY solar electricity for homes project was a success and it was thanks to a set of clearly explained, step-by-step video instructions.Reading instructions alone were insufficient for me because some technical assembling steps can be confusing. Things like wiring configuration and arranging the circuitry on the solar panel.With step-by-step videos, I can pause, rewind and view each assembling step in precise detail. Try watching quality instructional videos and you will be amazed at how simple it is to complete a DIY solar electricity for homes project!

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