Innovate at design stage to tackle e-waste

BANGALORE, INDIA: The pile has rotten! This time around it is not the single apple that has caused it to rot! Matter of fact, every minuscule bit of this pile is a scrap, a poisonous scrap, which has been swiped into the Indian soils across its borders for over two decade now.

Having generated around 4,56,000 tonnes in 2008 (as per MAIT-GTZ E-Waste Survey 2007), India today has become an abode for this mounting scrap of waste, called e-waste. It is high time to dig deep into this disorder and try to clean the dirt!

“It is a fact that India needs a more organised recycling capacity in different regions of the country, so that E-waste generated in the region/location can be recycled with minimal logistics costs and closer to the points of generation."

"Environmental impacts can occur at every stage of the product lifecycle. Therefore, e-waste policies should be developed so that they incent manufacturers to minimise the environmental impact of the product from the start, i.e at the design stage,” opines P Ravindranath, director, Strategic Development/Government & Public Affairs, Hewlett Packard India Sales Pvt Ltd, in an interaction with CIOL. He also explains how HP is lending a helping hand in India's effort to fight against this issue.

Excerpts:

CIOL: How are the obsolete products collected at HP being recycled? How much e-waste is recycled at HP and what happens to the rest?

P Ravindranath: Hundred percent of the e-waste generated by HP in India across facilities, offices and factories is recycled. In the last two years, HP has recycled over 209 metric tonnes of e-waste through Government of India authorized and HP approved recyclers in India, such as E-parisaraa in Bangalore, Tes-Amm in Chennai and TIC Group in Noida.

However, HP does not have an e-waste recycling unit in India as of now. HP has a structured internal program, known as 'Planet Partners Recycling Program', to recycle its own personal productivity equipment.

The recycling program operates globally in over 40 countries, regions and territories. It seeks to reduce the environmental impact of IT products, minimise waste going to landfills and help customers conveniently dispose products in an environmental friendly manner.

Plastics and metals recovered from products recycled by HP have been used in new HP products, as well as a range of other uses, including auto body parts, cloth hangers, plastic toys, fence posts, serving trays and roof tiles. 

However, HP does not have a control on the percentage of the end of life products returned by HP customers. While we at HP have the internal program for return of end-of-life products for enterprise customers, the returns are limited! 

CIOL: HP has a take-back service only for its business customers, through online request. How about the other segments?

PR: HP has had a PTB (Product Take Back) program in place since 2003 in the country. This was revamped and re-launched in July 2008. The scope of this program includes personal computers, laptops, computer monitors, handhelds, notebooks, servers, printers, scanners and fax machines, as well as associated external components such as cables, mice and keyboards.

HP has a robust structure in place for the take-back of its enterprise customers in India, though we have noticed limited collections from customers. HP also has a structured internal program to recycle its own personal productivity equipment, already mentioned as the Planet Partners Recycling Program.

This program is currently available to enterprise and commercial customers, and has been launched in India as a phased initiative. For printer supplies, the take-back program is available to consumers, where certain drop-off points have been identified for customers to deposit their end-of-life supplies.

HP is conducting a pilot testing of the consumer take-back program in a few locations for consumers in India. Once the pilots are completed by mid 2009 we will be able to determine the model of roll out on a larger scale. In the final phase of the program, expected by 2009, HP expects to be able to offer take back to consumers as well.

HP is also partnering with MAIT to look at a collection mechanism that will strengthen the infrastructure required for the consumer take back program.

CIOL: What initiatives are being taken at HP to phase out toxic chemicals from electronic as well as other products, which end up as e-waste?

PR: All HP products manufactured in India comply with RoHS norms. In keeping with its global policy, HP designs and develops products that are sustainable throughout their life cycles, offers product re-use and recycling solutions, and sets high environmental standards in its operations and supply chain. HP is also actively working with multiple stakeholders to evolve guidelines for responsible e-waste management in the country.

CIOL: An e-waste law on the principles of Individual Producer Responsibility(IPR) is being formulated. What is HP's take on this?

PR: HP supports the concept of IPR in India as well, according to which a producer/manufacturer takes full responsibility of a product from its production till the end of its life phase, collect the discarded products and recycle it.

Environmental impacts can occur at every stage of the product lifecycle. Therefore, e-waste policies should be developed so that they encourage manufacturers to minimize the environmental impact of the product from the start, at the design stage itself.

At HP, through our Design for Environment (DfE) program, we design new products with a view to reduce the variety of plastics used in each product, minimize the hazardous material content, and improve the recyclability of the product.

All of these efforts are aimed at making the connection between better design and efficiency at the end of the products' useful life.

This principle is called ‘individual producer responsibility (IPR)’ and it encourages manufacturers to design products that are environmentally sound and gives them a return on their design investment. We believe that IPR is the only way producer responsibility policies can achieve the environmental outcomes they are initially designed to achieve.

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.