Below are some viewpoints about
the environmental "friendliness"
or lack thereof of lead-free
solders.
Lead-free solder has reliability
challenges, which may (or may
not) be resolved given time,
including the impact of new
termination platings on the
components themselves. It has
also soaked up tens of billions
of dollars in areas such as
capital equipment, re-design,
materials research and standards
generation.
Secondly, the most valuable
(non-renewable) resource has
been in engineering bandwidth,
which has been locked up for
five years or more in the run up
to the European Union's
Restriction of Hazardous
Substances (RoHS) lead ban in
solders. Most importantly,
removing lead in solder will
actually have a negative impact
on the environment, and was not
necessary for any public safety
or environmental considerations,
or based on any published data
in the first place.
The latest EPA report on
Solders in Electronics: A
life-cycle assessment ,
published August 2005, has some
very interesting data. It shows
that the most widely used
replacements for "leaded"
solder, generally referred to as
"SAC alloy", has a greater
environmental impact than
tin/lead solder in a number of
key areas such as non-renewable
resource use, energy use, global
warming, ozone depletion and
water quality.
