Electronics Recycling Asia: Scaling to larger numbers

Motivated by corporate sustainability plans, extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws or the financial benefits of doing so, computer and telecom original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have greatly increased their recycling involvement. That was the message imparted by several OEM panelists at the 2015 Electronics Recycling Asia  event, held in Singapore in mid-November.

Vivian Tai of the Taipei, Taiwan office of U.S.-based computer maker Dell, said recycling and the use of recycled content is a key part of the company’s 2020 Legacy of Good Plan. Two out of every three Dell products shipped are now sent with “waste-free packaging,” said Tai, and the company also has been increasing its use of recycled-content materials.

“Dell has shipped over 4 million pounds (2,000 tons) of closed-loop recycled plastics in products globally,” said Tai. She added, “35 percent of all plastics used in Dell products is post-consumer recycled” material.

Tai said Dell and other OEMs can do more yet to boost recycling in the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) sector, including by “supporting the growth of the take-back infrastructure, especially in the developing world.” She also said it is one of Dell’s goals to “advance design for repairability and recyclability” techniques.

She said Dell also has a goal of leaping from the 4 million pounds of recycled plastics resins used so far to 15 million pounds by 2020. The company hopes to work with collection and recycling partners to help recycle some 2 billion pounds (1 million tons) of WEEE materials per year by 2020.

Collaboration with the recycling industry is important, said Tai, who said OEMs and recyclers can “work together to create ore possibilities.”

David Scuderi, the head of environment of Samsung Electronics Europe, said the South Korea-based OEM has opened up an outlet in the United Kingdom—the global company’s first –to sell refurbished Samsung products. Scuderi said he hopes it becomes “a wider approach” from Samsung and other OEMs to help protect the “chain of custody” of computer and telecom products.

Samsung also is “looking to increase the recycled content in our devices. We will do so aggressively in the next eight years,” Scuderi stated.

He said that Samsung is not intending to go it alone in its recycling efforts, but will instead work with pivotal allies throughout the collection, processing and recycled materials preparation chains. “We as manufacturers now need even closer cooperation with what you are doing,” he said to conference delegates.

Scuderi also urged policy makers to favor incentives if they wish to see proper recycling of WEEE materials take place. “We need a harmonized, enabling regulatory framework—policies that make us work in the right direction.”

United States-based OEM Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has produced more than 1.3 billion computer printer cartridges and toner products that contain recycled materials, according to Annukka Dickens, the director of global supply chain responsibility for the company.

HP has been working “with one key partner,” said Dickens, to boost this activity. “This is the company that develops the new plastics that go back into our products,” she added. Having one company engaged comprehensively, she said, allows the partner firm “to develop perspective and economies of scale.”

HP also has a Recycling Innovation Center and an internal policy of “tax engineering” that “creates a clear incentive to use recycled materials,” said Dickens.

Challenges remain, said Dickens, including having access to “a controlled supply of materials from the unpredictable take-back stream” in the WEEE sector.

Electronics Recycling Asia 2015 was organized by Switzerland-based ICM AG and held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore Nov. 10-13.