In Hong Kong, most of the printed circuit board factories are small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing industry shares many of the problems of the electroplating industry due to the similarity in unit processes involved. The environmental characteristics include:

• Large quantities of chemical waste including spent etchants (containing high concentrations of copper), dry film developer, resist strip and spent solvent.
• Atmospheric emissions from etchant solutions and solvents may also require control, primarily for protection of worker health and safety.
• Noise from the cutting machines may be a problem within the factory boundary, but is unlikely to impact on ambient noise levels.
  

(Source: Trade and Industry Department)

Challenges for SMEs

Owing to increasingly stringent regulatory requirements and progressively higher social pressure towards environmental protection, manufacturers all over the world have to identify and implement cost-effective measures to properly tackle their environmental problems.

However, SME manufacturers face a number of barriers during the course of looking for self-improvement and becoming a green and responsible industrialist. The main barriers for SME in improving their environmental performance are:

• Ability in adopting the right cleaner production concepts in production process
• Know-how in eco-product design
• Identifying a cost-effective pollution control technology
• Understanding the local and global legal requirements in environmental protection
• Proper ways in responding global environmental supply chain pressures
• Strategic planning for long-term environmental improvement
• Constraints from capital and human resources

Want to know more about the Key Environmental Issues of Printed Circuit Board Industry? Go to the section of Key Environmental Issues.