The European Commission is moving forward with a new database for data on SVHCs in articles. ECHA is contracted to develop the database; which is considered by the Commission to be a part of interface between chemical, product, and waste legislation. Product manufacturers will in turn be required to submit data on the SVHCs that are present in the products as per the reporting requirements of REACH Article 33 (SVHCs in articles).
Discussion is underway between some industry organizations and the European Commission on the proposed database and the challenges of implementing such a system.
The revised waste legislation[1] that mandates the creation of such a database was published on June 14, 2018. The legislation comes into force after 20 days and the database needs to be operational 18 months thereafter (January 5, 2020) (Article 9, paragraph 2). Once the database is in place, article suppliers (e.g. importers) are required to provide information on SVHCs to the database within 30 months of the amending Directive coming into force (January 5, 2021) – this is specified in Article 9(1)(i) and is excerpted below:
(i) promote the reduction of the content of hazardous substances in materials and products, without prejudice to harmonised legal requirements concerning those materials and products laid down at Union level, and ensure that any supplier of an article as defined in point 33 of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (*) provides the information pursuant to Article 33(1) of that Regulation to the European Chemicals Agency as from 5 January 2021;
Impact on EEE Manufacturers
A requirement for manufacturers and importers to submit all SVHCs in their products into a central database will create significant challenges and extra work for many manufacturers, especially SMEs. ECD Compliance will be monitoring the requirements and industry efforts as the details of the requirements become more visible.
[1] Amendment to EU Waste legislation, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32018L0851&from=EN