e-Waste Initiative

As rapid innovation and changing fashions make products quickly obsolete, a mountain of waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) is growing.

Between 20 and 50 million tonnes[1] of e-waste are produced worldwide every year. GeSI aims to ensure these products are disposed of responsibly and material is reused or recycled wherever possible.

Our vision is for the sector to move from managing risks to encouraging more efficient use and more extensive re-use of materials by viewing e-waste as a valuable resource. Recycling more of the materials in used equipment – including precious metals – reduces environmental impacts from its disposal and reduces the need to extract more raw materials from the ground. This, in turn, reduces the associated environmental and social impacts of mining, tying in with our supply chain work on extraction.

The ICT industry does not have direct control over a lot of equipment – such as computers and mobile phones – when it reaches the end of its useful life. Some of our member companies already have take-back schemes in place. But we rely on users to return products for recycling, and we will encourage them to do so.

ICT companies can make a difference with their own waste disposal contractors and in 2008 GeSI developed an end-of-life management tool that will be integrated into our existing E-TASC self-assessment questionnaire for suppliers. Specific criteria cover collection, recycling, reuse and disposal. This will help GeSI member companies ensure e-waste from their own operations is handled responsibly.

Next steps

We plan to publish the end-of-life questionnaire in 2009 following consultation within the industry and externally. The next step is to promote take-back schemes to reclaim more e-waste from consumers for reuse and recycling. Our E-Waste Working Group will increasingly focus on management of material resources as well as risk associated with end-of-life.