WEEE Compliance

Collection and Recycling Arrangements in France

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

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

Under the French Decree on the Prevention and Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) 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 August 13th 2005 is the customer's responsibility. This is regardless of whether the equipment is being replaced by a new piece of equipment from a Minicom distributor. Equipment purchased before August 13th 2005 is referred to as Historic WEEE.

Under the Decree, the Minicom distributor is required to finance the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of any new electrical and electronic equipment that you buy from them after August 13th 2005, 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 France.

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 the Decree.
• Minicom pays for the costs of data management and reporting to the Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME) to demonstrate compliance with all administrative requirements of the Decree.
• you pay for transportation of your WEEE to Minicom's appointed recycler in France.

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 France. 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 of collection and transportation to EARN. Under Decree 98-679 1998 Relating to Road Transport, the Trade and the Broking of Waste, you are free to use any carrier you wish to collect and transport non-hazardous WEEE to the EARN recycler, providing the total weight of equipment to be transported is less than 500 kg.

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 recyclers in France are:

Location	Recycler	Telephone Number	Website
North of Paris	Coolrec France S.A.	+33 (0)3 20 30 76 16	www.coolrec.nl
South of Paris	Indumetal Recycling, S.A.	+34 944 710 165	www.indumetal.com

There is no legal requirement that WEEE be accompanied by documentation when transported in France. However, in order to enable EARN to identify Minicom equipment upon arrival at the recycler's address, please download the recycling label for France (North of Paris), or the recycling label for France (South of Paris). Complete the label with your company details and attach it to a suitable box for transport to EARN.

  Recycling Label for French Customers (North of Paris)

  Recycling Label for French Customers (South of Paris)

WEEE Reporting Recycling Data for Minicom Equipment in France

Under Article 14 of the WEEE Decree, 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 France.

The first WEEE recycling report will cover the year 2006 and be available from March 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