The European Economic Union’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive is aimed at minimizing the impacts of electrical and electronic equipment on the environment by designing products with recycling in mind and encouraging reuse, recycling and recovery of WEEE.   The WEEE directive applies to a huge range of electrical equipment, including NovAtel products, and will be enforced by European law starting August 15, 2005.

In conjunction with the EEU’s WEEE directive is the related Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive.   The aim of this directive is to reduce the hazardous materials content in electronic products.   Specifically, it bans electronic equipment from being sold in Europe after July 1, 2006 if it contains more than trace levels of lead, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, mercury or certain brominated flame-retardants.