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Every year, more than 50 000 tons of electronic goods are thrown away in South Africa, according to Hewlett-Packard (HP). The most worrying aspect of this situation is that e-waste contains more than 1 000 different substances and can be toxic if discarded improperly.

 As part of its international campaign to contribute to the fight against e-waste, HP pledged to recover more than one billion kilograms of electronic equipment by 2010. Locally, the IT giant has begun two recycling initiatives for its business and consumer customers.

“HP’s goal is to add value to its products and services by enabling South African companies to reduce the impact to the environment in a way that is as easy as using an HP product,” says Ruben Janse van Rensburg, Environmental Business Lead at HP SA.

Earlier this year, HP introduced a business-to-business “take-back” and recycling service for its South African business customers who want to dispose and recycle their end-of-life IT hardware in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner.

“Customers will submit requests online for the hardware to be picked up. The requests are processed by a contact centre and then sent to an approved logistics service provider. The logistics service providers collect the equipment, while approved recyclers, who treat and ensure maximised usage of recovered materials for recycling, will issue a certificate of destruction on completion to business customers,” explains Janse van Rensburg.

The Web-based recycling programme will be made available to HP business customers who want to dispose of endof- life HP IT hardware, and business customers who want to get rid of non- HP hardware and replace it with HP hardware. The customers would have to be based in Cape Town, Durban or Johannesburg.

The service is free to companies in and around these three cities, which want to get rid of loads in excess of 250kg. HP also provides take-back and recycling services, at a fee, for smaller loads, secure data destruction, equipment removal and packaging.

HP SA states that it only uses HPapproved hardware logistics and recycling vendors that are compliant with local legislation and HP’s global recycling and environmental standards. It audits its recycling vendors on an ongoing basis as a part of its vendor performance programme.

Janse van Rensburg says HP SA’s recycling service is sustainable and environmentally responsible, because HP has an extensive management programme looking after each and every component of the take-back programme on an ongoing basis and in a proactive manner.

He explains that HP goes the extra mile by performing second and third-tier waste vendor audits. HP does not just put recyclers in place with once-off screening, it also manages the performance of these subcontractors by means of audits, inspections and monitoring activities based on very strict IT e-waste standards and specifications.

“HP really is setting the standard for IT companies to follow in order to ensure sustainability for such a programme. HP does not just select vendors in this regard, we choose to walk every step with our vendors, and in the process, develop and grow them into vendors that are compliant with first-world country IT e-waste standards.”

Retirement plans

HP signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with eWASA in March this year in order to establish an e-waste management system for SA. A statement from HP SA says through the company’s collaboration with eWASA, both parties would set up a proper takeback structure for retired IT products in SA, which follows the principle of “shared individual manufacturer responsibility”.

eWASA explains that the principle entails every party involved in the manufacturing, selling, distributing and using of IT products has responsibilities for the products at the end of life. A statement from HP SA adds that the structure of the MOU already exists in European countries such as Austria and Germany.

The system incorporates two stages: the first step involves establishing an independent clearing house responsible for setting the rules for producer e-waste obligation; and in the second step, a “take-back scheme” (TBS) is chosen and contracted by each producer to collect and properly treat retired electronic products.

“Commercial take-back services are already being offered by HP direct to their business customers. The collaboration with eWASA will form a take-back system to cater for consumers’ recycling needs,” adds Janse van Rensburg.

The recycling take-back system, which HP SA and eWASA want to nationalise, will ensure the collection and treatment of the entire e-waste spectrum through a network of dropoff points such as retailers and municipalities, he states. Through the principle of “Producer Responsibility”, e-waste manufacturers/producers will be funding the take-back system based on market allocation. Operational fulfilment will take place through a competitive structure of different take-back schemes consisting of approved collection and recycling service providers.

HP and eWASA have also collaborated in a pilot project in Maitland, Cape Town, where an e-waste material recycling facility was set up. The programme, which is being replicated in KwaZulu-Natal, also promises to benefit disadvantaged communities.

“During start-up phase, the Cape Town treatment centre created more than 20 jobs and has generated over $15 000 (R127 443) in three revenue streams: sales of recovered and refurbished components and equipment, sales of recovered secondary raw materials, and sales of waste-to-art products whereby e-waste is converted into art pieces,” says Janse van Rensburg.

eWASA SA chairman Keith Anderson says the organisation guarantees that all the equipment that is collected is recycled in a responsible way and that all the reusable materials are recovered. “HP has extensive experience in the take-back and treatment of IT e-waste in Europe, Asia and the US, and believes that the knowledge and experience that can be brought to the recycling front in SA will be beneficial to the operations of a local e-waste management system,” says Anderson.

HP says its recycling initiatives will go a long way towards helping develop a blueprint for a sustainable e-waste management system in African countries, in collaboration with existing local recycling projects.

C O N T A C T

Ruben Janse van Rensburg

Environmental Business Lead Hewlett Packard South Africa
Tel: +27 11 785 1826
Website: www.hp.com

PICTURE 1

Ruben Janse van Rensburg, Environmental Business Lead, HP SA