CIOL: India generated over 4 metric tonnes of waste in 2008 and the majority of them ended up with the  unorganized e-waste recycling segment. How does HP react to this?
PR: It is a practice in the market that end-of-life products are exchanged with the resellers/dealers for a new purchase of HP products. The end-of-life equipment could get into the secondary market for extended re-use for some more years before they eventually reach end of life and is considered hazardous to the environment. At this stage, as per the surveys done, much of this gets into the unorganized sector for recycling.

There are a large number of unorganised sectors, who are currently involved in the recycling of e-waste in India. There is a lack of awareness among them on the environment and health hazards associated. There is a need for the unorganised sector to be made aware of the impact of recycling e-waste.

They also need to be integrated with the organised sector as part of their extended supply chain to ensure that while they perform the roles of collection, sorting, etc., it does not impact their health or the environment and be equipped with necessary tools to handle e-waste in a more scientific way.

CIOL: How equipped is HP to produce products that can be easily upgraded instead of dumped?
PR: As mentioned, HP designs its products based on the key principle of 'Design for Environment' .This principle integrates 'eliminating hazardous substances in the products' and 'designing for easy disassembly post use'.

HP also believes in extending the use of products through refurbishment, particularly in countries like India, so that the amount of e-waste is reduced. HP also makes sure that products collected from HP and from customers are processed by authorised recyclers.