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StEP – Solving the e-waste problem
Recycling of IT products is getting more and more important. Since it is through our products that HP has the greatest impact on the environment, take back and recycling programs are critical. That is why we are always looking into ways to make recycling even more effective and to do so in an environmentally sound way. I am constantly in contact with peers, governments and NGOs to discuss and find new solutions for the current challenges around e-waste.

Electrical and electronic products are an essential part of today's life around the planet. They serve in education, health, food-supply, communication, security, transportation, environmental protection and culture. Like anything in life, electrical and electronic products have a beginning and an end. It is a challenge for the entire society to balance the performance, affordability, access and environmental impact during manufacturing, distribution, use, and at the end of a product‘s life.

In my opinion, the problem posed by e-waste is threefold: First, products contain valuable material like gold, silver or indium whose prices have increased dramatically over the past years. Second, due to the value of product components, recycling already takes place in many countries around the world. Electronic products are often dismantled by untrained employees of small recycling firms which don’t provide their staff with the appropriate safety measures and tools. These practices often result in health issues for the usually untrained staff and harm the environment as e-waste is improperly treated. Third, economists foresee a shortage of raw materials in several years. Recycling is one of the ways to ensure that these materials are available to continue manufacturing HP products in the midterm.

To address the e-waste problem, I got in contact with Ruediger Kuehr from the United Nations University. And together with other stakeholders we first discussed and then finally initiated a new global public private initiative called Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP). The initiative is headed by the United Nations University (UNU), and supported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). HP is one of the main private sector sponsors of this initiative and it was great to be in the project from the beginning .

The initiative’s goal is to increase provide a scientific information to help governments and other institutions (i.e.the UN) to improve recycling standards and legislation and to reduce the amount of e-waste that is not disposed of safely.

What is really important is that this is the first worldwide approach and goes far beyond tackling the topic of e-waste on a national/regional level. The StEP initiative will lead to develop a certification process for recycling companies, enabling the private and public sector to recycle e-waste even when there are no adequate local facilities. My personal opinion is that this global approach is crucial to change the recycling methods in the future.

And how does this initiative look like in the practice? Under the StEP ‘umbrella’, the project will develop and offer training to people who are recycling and work with governments of developing economies to help them make their recycling practices safer and more effective and thereby safer for their staff and less harmful to the environment. As more and more recycling services are available in developing economies for their domestic E-Waste, proper training of recycling operators is especially crucial.

And the contribution of HP will be to share best practices from our Design for Recycling and Design for Environment product development programs. We will also share the experiences we made in implementing the European directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and in co-founding the European Recycling Platform.
For a big company like HP this was an enormous effort to be ready in time for the WEEE directive, so I could say, we know what we are talking about.

I am convinced that the StEP initiative is the first step into the right direction to make sure that e-waste will be handled globally in a correct manner.

Klaus Hieronymi, Director, Environmental Business Management, HP EMEA


If you want to learn more about the initiative, you can find further information at www.step-initiative.org
Posted 04-26-2007 11:53 PM by BlogArchive
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Comments

dsarokin wrote Re: StEP – Solving the e-waste problem
on 04-28-2007 1:03 AM
The bigger the company, the bigger the IT use and the bigger the opportunity for e-cycling. You may be interested to know that a new list has just been made public of Europe's 250 Largest Companies: http://xooxleanswers.com/euro.aspx These are the companies to talk to about what they are doing -- and what they should be doing in terms of recycling their electronic wastes. Just wanted to let folks know. David
klaus.hieronymi wrote Re: StEP – Solving the e-waste problem
on 05-04-2007 8:34 PM
Thank you for your comment and the link. We are always interested in sharing best practice.Klaus
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