WEEE Compliance

Collection and Recycling Arrangements in Germany

Minicom equipment is sold in Germany by distributors. The distributor imports the equipment into Germany. Thus the distributor has the legal responsibility to:

• Register as the WEEE producer in Germany
• Finance arrangements for collection and recycling of WEEE arising from Minicom equipment that the distributor sells in Germany

Under the Germany Act Governing the Sale, Return and Environmentally Sound Disposal of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (ElektroG) which came into force on August 13th 2005, the financing of collection and recycling of any waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) arising from equipment bought before March 24th 2006 is the customer's responsibility. This is regardless of whether the old equipment is being replaced by a new item of equipment purchased from the Minicom distributor. Waste arising from equipment purchased before March 24th 2006 is referred to as Historic WEEE.

Under the ElektroG Act, Minicom distributors are required to finance the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of any new electrical and electronic equipment that you buy from them after March 24th 2006, when that new equipment eventually becomes waste. This is referred to as New WEEE.

Minicom has decided to provide WEEE collection and recycling on behalf of its distributors in Germany.

Minicom products are very competitively priced. Any new increase in operating costs for manufacturers such as Minicom is normally reflected in a price increase in the product. However, instead of increasing the prices of our products, Minicom has decided to share these new environmental costs directly with our customers. We believe in being transparent with you on any new environmental costs that our products need to address.

Our approach to sharing these new environmental costs is:

• Minicom pays for the costs of treatment, recycling and recovery of the WEEE to meet the targets set by ElektroG.
• Minicom pays for the costs of data management and reporting to the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) to demonstrate compliance with all administrative requirements of ElektroG.
• you pay for transportation of your WEEE to Minicom's appointed recycler in Germany.

Minicom has established a recycling contract with the European Advanced Recycling Network (EARN) and will cover any costs of treatment, recycling and recovery of the equipment on arrival at the EARN facility in Germany. All New WEEE that arises from the purchase of Minicom products is classed as non-hazardous waste.

It is your responsibility to arrange and pay for costs collection and transportation to EARN. Under German waste management regulations, you are free to use any carrier you wish to collect and transport non-hazardous WEEE to the EARN recycler.

For larger quantities of waste you may wish to contact the recycler directly in order to arrange and pay for an alternative collection method. The Minicom recycler in Germany is:

Recycler	Telephone Number	Website
Electrocycling	+49 (0)5321 336724	www.electrocycling.de - English contact page www.electrocycling.de - German contact page

In order to enable EARN to identify Minicom equipment upon arrival at the recycler's address, please download the Recycling Label for German Customers. Complete the label with your company details and attach it to a suitable box for transport to EARN.

  Recycling Label for German Customers

WEEE Reporting Recycling Data for Minicom Equipment in Germany

Under Part 2, Section 13 of ElektroG, Minicom distributors must provide annual information on the quantities and categories of electrical and electronic equipment put on the market, reused, recycled and recovered within Germany.

The first WEEE recycling report will cover the period March 2006 to February 2007. EARN will prepare the recycling data report for Minicom distributors. Information in the EARN recycling data report will be summarised on the Minicom website when it becomes available.

Equipment	Sold:	Collected:	Reused:		Recovered:		Recycled:
Category	Tonnes:	Tonnes:	Tonnes:	%:	Tonnes:	%:	Tonnes:	%:
1: Large Household Appliances	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2: Small Household Appliances	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3: IT & Telecom's Equipment	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4: Consumer Equipment	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5: Lighting Equipment	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6: Electrical & Electronic Tools	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7: Toys, Leisure & Sports Equipment	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8: Medical Devices	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9: Monitoring & Control Equipment	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10: Automatic Dispensers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0