Mercury and RoHS: The link between environmental regulations and efficiency

Panel: 9. Products, appliances, ICT

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Michael Scholand, CLASP, United Kingdom
Peter Bennich, Swedish Energy Agency, Sweden

Abstract

A European environmental regulation that addresses mercury was identified as a mechanism to capture significant energy and greenhouse gas savings for lighting products which were complementary to the existing Ecodesign regulation for those same products. The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) presented with an opportunity to expand the scope of coverage to more products, including some excluded from regulation under Ecodesign, and to accelerate the phase-out of those products due to their toxicity rather than on a basis of least life-cycle cost. The RoHS Directive was adopted in February 2003 with the intention to limit and phase-out certain hazardous substances in electrical products, including mercury. Fluorescent and high-intensity discharge lamps are currently allowed under RoHS, albeit with limits on their mercury content. While the intention is to recover and recycle these lamps at the end of life, research has shown that only 12-50% of the lamps sold in the EU are recovered, implying considerable quantities of mercury are released to the environment (SEA-CLASP, 2019).

Mercury-free “plug and play” LED retrofit lamps have now matured to the point where they can replace fluorescent lighting in virtually all applications. Research published in 2020 demonstrated that when applying the criteria of the RoHS Directive, the justification for exempting fluorescent lamps no longer applies. The European Commission is expected to decide in 2021 whether to rescind the exemption. A socioeconomic analysis published by the Commission in July 2020 shows that such a decision would generate €29.9 billion in net savings for Europe, eliminate 2.9 tonnes of mercury in lamps and avoid the need for 310 TWh of electrical energy (Öko-Institut, 2020) – which given Europe’s power mix, saves a further 2.5 tonnes of mercury emissions from coal-power plants (SEA-CLASP, 2020b).

Furthermore, if Europe decides to end the RoHS exemptions for fluorescent lamps, the EU-27 will be well positioned to support similar measures to phase-out fluorescent lamps to the global community through the United Nation’s Minamata Convention on Mercury which starts its fourth Conference of the Parties (COP4) in November 2021. Phasing out fluorescent lighting globally will protect public and environmental health from unnecessary mercury releases while cost-effectively reducing energy-use for lighting. This paper offers a case study of fluorescent lighting being examined by the RoHS Directive in Europe and presents the results of a global analysis of environmental benefits if the Minamata Convention were to phase out fluorescent lamps.

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