Under the Dutch Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Management Regulations which came into force on January 1st 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 WEEE Management Regulations, Black Box is required to finance the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of any new electrical and electronic equipment that you buy from Black Box 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 The Netherlands.
• Black Box pays for the costs of treatment, recycling and recovery of the WEEE to meet the targets set by the WEEE Management Regulations.
• Black Box pays for the costs of data management and reporting to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Housing and The Environment (VROM) to demonstrate compliance with all administrative requirements of the WEEE Management Regulations.

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 to avoid the equipment being classed as hazardous waste.

WEEE Reporting Recycling Data for Black Box equipment in The Netherlands

Under Section 16 of the WEEE Management Regulations, Black Box must provide annual information of the quantities and categories of electrical and electronic equipment put on the market, reused, recycled and recovered within the Netherlands.

The first WEEE recycling report will cover the period August 2005 to July 2006.