One important aspect of product-related environmental protection is environmentally safe
product recycling or disposal. This is possible only with the knowledge of the substances
contained and the potential hazards to health and to the environment that they represent.
Therefore, the manufacturer should know which environmentally relevant substances are
contained in his products. Additionally, he should know the distribution and the concentrations
of these substances. He should be able to give the required information to those who need it.
The flow of information on material content involves several parties, as illustrated in figure 1.
This guideline is not prescriptive. It is rather written to assist companies which have to
develop materials declaration questionnaires for products, for instance as part of purchase
specifications. It intends to increase the harmonization and the comparability of the various
questionnaires. This is supposed to lead to cost reduction, both for those sending
questionnaires and for those answering them, but it must be kept in mind that the possibilities
for harmonizing the materials declaration questionnaires are limited because of the differing
needs of those requiring information, and because of the continual changes of the hazardous
materials lists.