Johannesburg, 05 Dec 2005
IBM plans to introduce products that comply with the European Union`s Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations for its new servers and storage products by July 2006
The company says all new servers and storage products would be compliant and that existing product lines would be re-engineered to achieve compliance.
The Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment is a directive issued by the European Union, which appeals to producers of electrical and electronic equipment to eliminate the use of six environmentally-sensitive substances - lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and flame retardants.
"We have made considerable headway in transitioning towards RoHS complaint products and processes. IBM is committed to meeting environmental regulations and therefore requires its suppliers, in turn, to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, orders and policies in providing products to IBM," said Werner Lindemann, systems and technology group executive for IBM South and Central Africa.
"Although a similar directive has yet to be issued in South Africa, other countries such as the US, China and Japan have followed the European Union lead and I`m confident the same will happen here in the near future," said Lindemann.
To do this, IBM will adopt a cleaner manufacturing process, which produces fewer pollutants. The disposal and recycling of the compliant systems is also simpler as the equipment contains less hazardous substances, said Lindemann.
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