Growing e-waste an opportunity for manufacturers: Tech product makers
As various parts of the world embrace sustainable lifestyles, companies are recognising the need for a circular economy, where one waste ends up reused to become another product.
The increase in the amount of e-waste generation is an opportunity for manufacturers, according to technology product manufacturers.
E-waste is an electronic product that is no longer needed, worn out, not working, or nearing the end of its utility for the user. These include wires to devices.
"While e-waste is a growing environmental issue, this is an opportunity for manufacturers, customers and general public to come together and address the issue. At Dell, we employ closed-loop strategies... to create new products by recycling select materials from out-of-use technology," Nick Abbatiello, DELL Technologies' Experience Innovation Group Senior Distinguished Engineer, said.
As various parts of the world embrace sustainable lifestyles, companies are recognising the need for a circular economy, where one waste ends up reused to become another product.
Another manufacturer of personal computers, smartphones, televisions, and wearable devices, Lenovo, manages disposed of IT assets and data centre infrastructure through the Lenovo Asset Recovery Services.
According to Lenovo India Director, Solutions and Services Group, Rohit Midha, "To minimise e-waste one way is to choose the right service provider who understands the technicalities of device disposal and offers options for recycling, and possible remarketing covering pan-India locations."
Lenovo said its sustainability efforts include incorporating recycled material in the product design, compostable packaging, energy efficiency in our products for optimising usage, and solutions to help retire assets responsibly and offset carbon footprint.
"We've set ambitious targets and are taking the right actions to address climate change and drive a more circular economy. Our 2030 circular economy goals span the full lifecycle of our products—from design through manufacturing, shipping and recovery.
"Consumers play an important role by returning old electronics, and Dell offers a variety of options to conveniently return and recycle end-of-life technology and support e-waste reduction," Abbatiello added.
"By 2025-26, we will have enabled the recycling and reuse of 800 million pounds (362,874 MT) of end-of-life products (cumulative since 2005)... while 84% of repairs can be done at the customer site, without having to send their PC to a service centre," Lenovo said.
About 76% of repairable PC parts returned to each service centre will be repaired for future use by 2025-26, it said.
In India, nearly 300 Lenovo products include content from recycled electronics, the company added.