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 customers responsibility. This is regardless of whether the equipment is being replaced by a new piece of equipment from Black Box. Equipment purchased before August 13th 2005 is referred to as Historic WEEE.

Under the Decree, Black Box 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.

Black Box products are very competitively priced. Any new increase in operating costs for manufacturers such as Black Box is normally reflected in a price increase in the product. However, instead of increasing the prices of our products Black Box 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 are:

• You pay for transportation of your WEEE to Black Box’s appointed recycler in France.
• Black Box pays for the costs of treatment, recycling and recovery of the WEEE to meet the targets set by the Decee.
• Black Box 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.

Black Box 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 Black Box products is classed as non-hazardous waste.

Black Box customers sending equipment for recycling are advised that you MUST remove all batteries PRIOR to collection for the following reasons:

• To avoid the equipment being classed as hazardous waste under the EU Hazardous Waste Directive
• To ensure the equipment south of Paris is classed as 'Green Waste' for transfrontier shipment across the national border to Spain

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.

WEEE Reporting Recycling Data for Black Box equipment in France

Under Article 14 of the WEEE Decree, Black Box dealers must provide annual information of 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 period August 2005 to July 2006. EARN will prepare the recycling data report for Black Box. Information in the EARN recycling data report will be summarised on the Black Box website when it becomes available.