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SCMP Reporter

Hewlett-Packard sees a doubling in the amount of electronic waste collected for recycling in Asia this year, as a green revolution in the computer industry gathers pace.

The computer and printer giant estimated it was on track to gather almost 1,500 tonnes of discarded electronic products and printing supplies, up from 600 tonnes last year, from large corporate customers in various markets across the region by year end.

Jean-Claude Vanderstraeten,  HP's environmental director for Asia-Pacific and Japan, said regional recycling efforts were being expanded in line with the company's global initiative to recycle  about 453.6 million kilograms of electronic waste by 2007.

'I believe that HP has the broadest [recycling] coverage in the industry,' he said, adding its Asian operations processed between about 100 and 150 tonnes of electronic waste each month.

Rival personal computer maker Dell has also been active in the recovery and recycling of used and unwanted electronic products, but the Texas-based firm so far has mostly been focused in the United States.

Dell recently said it would  aim to double its efforts this year, after recovering about  15.8 million kg of computer products last year.

By comparison, HP last year collected and recycled more than  45 million kg worth of electronic products and printing supplies through its Planet Partners return-and-recycling programme in 30 markets around the world.

This has raised the company's total to  226.8 million kg since it started recycling products in 1987.

The formal HP recycling programme, which was established in 1991, offers to take back end-of-life print cartridges, printers, scanners, fax machines, PCs, servers, monitors, hand-held devices and associated external components such as cables, mouses and keyboards. These include products from HP and its competitors.

In Asia, the programme started rolling out in June last year. It covers corporate customers in the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Singapore.

Mr Vanderstraeten said HP had started small pilot projects at selected areas in Australia and Singapore to extend the programme to consumers and small to medium-sized businesses.

He said HP was also working with state and provincial governments across Asia to increase public environmental awareness, develop recycling infrastructure and support recycling legislation.

Taiwan, Japan and South Korea already have recycling legislation in place.

'There is certainly a need to help developing countries, such as China and India, to gain a level of maturity in dealing with environmental issues,' Mr Vanderstraeten said.

He said discarded electronic goods in Asia's developing economies tended to be cheaply resold through grey markets.

Mr Vanderstraeten expected the amount of electronic waste recycled by HP and other environmentally aware technology firms in Asia would sharply increase over the next few years. This would depend on how quickly Asia's developing markets established the necessary infrastructure.

HP said it used qualified private waste disposal firms in Asia, including a large undisclosed Singapore-based service provider with operations in the mainland, to process electronic waste. In the US, HP operates its own recycling facilities.

All recovered hardware is evaluated and either disassembled into parts for reuse as commodities or recycled. HP aims to achieve 'zero per cent landfill' through this process.

Gartner Research director Frances O'Brien recently said: 'Many enterprises have paid a high price in costs, regulatory fines, bad publicity and even litigation when their PCs turned up in landfills or third-world countries, or when confidential data was recovered from hard drives that had not been properly sanitised.'



HP leads 'green revolution' with waste recycling pledge