“There are many commercial reasons that companies may want to move EEE or sub-systems cross border for repair or refurbishment, these include:

    •    Return to the manufacturer or to a test house for investigation after an ‘adverse event’ in which a patient or user was harmed (regulatory compliance or for quality assurance monitoring of devices as required by the Medical Device Directives);
    •    Return to the manufacturer for repair. It has been recognised under RoHS that some equipment can have a very long service life, to well in excess of ten years and therefore far exceed the warranty period. Highly specialised or intricate repairs may require that the device be returned to the manufacturer or a regional authorised repairer in another Member State;
    •    Return to manufacturer for refurbishment and repair to return the equipment or its major components to the marketplace. For numerous long-lived medical devices and monitoring and control equipment, the product can be refurbished or updated (e.g. software or hardware);
    •    Return to a lessor upon expiration of a lease agreement. Many companies finance their equipment through leasing affiliates. Lessors want to repair and re-use equipment as they can maximise the initial investment in the equipment and need to re-lease it to recover their original investment; and
    •    Parts harvesting: to extend the lifetime of existing aged installations which could otherwise not be used anymore because of obsolete parts, and which are given an extended use through parts harvesting.”

From p. 2 of American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AMCHAM EU) response to Basel Secretariat. 2011. ‘Draft Technical Guidelines on Transboundary Movement of E-Waste, in Particular Regarding the Distinction between Waste and Non-Waste (Version: 21 February 2011 )’. http://archive.basel.int/techmatters/code/comments.php?guidId=78.

 

“The Draft Technical Guidelines should recognize additional exclusions for used equipment destined for re-use from the waste definition so as to reduce the risk that exports of used equipment for legitimate re-use, refurbishment and repair will be restricted as wastes. In addition to the exclusion for warranty returns already noted in the Draft Technical Guidelines, the document should expressly recognize exclusions for lease returns, service agreement returns and other instances that involve movements of used equipment back to manufacturers or their contractual agents where there is clear evidence that the used equipment is being managed as an asset for continued use.”

From p. 2 of response by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) to Basel Secretariat. 2011. ‘Draft Technical Guidelines on Transboundary Movement of E-Waste, in Particular Regarding the Distinction between Waste and Non-Waste (Version: 21 February 2011 )’. http://archive.basel.int/techmatters/code/comments.php?guidId=78.