Digital products contain up to 60 different elements including toxic ones (lead, cadmium, mercury but also PVC, brominated flame retardants...) and rare earth elements (Neodymium, Terbium, Dysprosium, etc.), which pose potential health risks to production workers, recyclers and environmental risks to water supplies near landfills where they are eventually dumped.
Source: IntechOpen
The technologies used to recover those rare earth elements have been improved over time, as they represent a high resale value. Properly recycling them reduce the risks to harm the environment and the human health, and also the need to mine new raw materials.
If you wish to change your equipments, consider their after-life and prefer the following incentives:
Keep in mind that before disassembling, you should conduct an assets audit and see what can be re-used, re-conditioned and what has to be recycled.
18 months
is the average use of a smartphone when actually its lifespan is 5 years.
(computercare.net)
50% less
carbon footprint by extending your computer life from 2 to 4 years, as 80% of carbon footprint comes from manufacturing.
(Ademe - Sept 2019)
Keep in mind that before disassembling, you should conduct an assets audit and see what can be re-used, re-conditionned and what has to be recycled.
You can contract directly with a specialised recycler to dispose of your equipment or bring it back to your suppliers: under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on e-waste, suppliers of electronic goods must take back old products, and send them to a licensed recycler.
In case e-waste management falls under your building management's responsibility, talk with your building manager to ensure collection is properly done.
17.4%
only of e-waste is formally recycled worldwide, among the 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste generated per annum among the ITU Member States.
(ITU - International Telecommunication Union)
19,9kg
annual e-waste generated per capita in Singapore.
(Global ewaste)
You may see here details of some e-recycling companies in Singapore.
Keep in mind that before recycling, you should conduct an assets audit and see what can be re-used, re-conditionned and what has to be recycled.
See our solution above "Find a new usage" for charities and intermediates for equipments that can be re-used.
For the hardwares that have to be recycled, do not forget that Electronic waste requires to be segregated from other waste, collected and treated properly, because they contain up to 60 different elements including toxic ones (lead, cadmium, mercury but also PVC, brominated flame retardants...) and rare earth elements (Neodymium, Terbium, Dysprosium, etc.).
Source: IntechOpen
You can contract directly with a specialised recycler to dispose of your equipment or bring it back to your suppliers: under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on e-waste, suppliers of electronic goods must take back old products, and send them to a licensed recycler.
In case e-waste management falls under your building management's responsibility, talk with your building manager to ensure collection is properly done.
60,000 tonnes
of e-waste generated in SG per year, equivalent to discarding ~70 mobile phones per person!
(Towards Zero Waste)
190 Kg CO2e
avoided by extending the lifetime of a single computer and monitor from 4 to 6 years.
(University of Edinburgh)
Find the recycling plan relevant to your equipment:
You may see here details of some e-recycling companies in Singapore.
You have personal e-waste to discard? Here is a list of all collection points available in Singapore.
The « green journey » may feel overwhelming sometimes, but you are not alone.
Our Buddies have tried, succeeded, failed to implement change in their companies. They share their experience so you can learn, take shortcuts, get inspired and ask questions.
Everybody can become a Buddy and give back to the community; if you are keen, get in touch with us.
I started my career as a mechanical engineer for 5 years and joined TayPaper Recycling in 2018. Tay Paper Recycling has grown from an informal scrap dealer to now a leading paper focused recycling company in Singapore. On top of just recycling, we also offer confidential data disposal services to help clients comply with PDPA, GDPR and recycle at the same time. I am now working at KGS, an e-waste and data sanitization company.
I am Thibaut, French bald since 26 & bold since forever! Right now, I am a 1st time entrepreneur in the making.
I come from an IT & software agency background so deeply into B2B and old-fashioned processes. I came to realize that sustainability cannot be only about consumers and half-measures. I also realized IT Sustainability was much underrated and not understood by most companies. It came quite as a surprise for me since I always considered IT Sustainability as one of the best ways to merge both ROI & Sustainability to make the latter sound acceptable, actionable, and realistic. Having seen that, I wanted to make a change in my own way.
My dedication came from the desire to be able to look my future kids in the eye and tell them that I tried to make the world a better place.
I am also drawn to uncommon & less popular causes, which is why e-waste caught my attention. While it’s not as “buzzy” as plastic waste or consumer recycling, it has the potential to have a greater impact, especially in Asia.
Founder and Director of the consulting business Zero Waste City, Rémi provides engineering consulting services to large commercial and industrial facilities on waste management, energy efficiency, and packaging design.
He has gained a strong experience as a consultant covering a wide range of industries and technologies in New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore.
He is a certified TRUE Advisor (Total Resource Use Efficiency) by the U.S. Green Building Council Inc. This certification recognised his knowledge in Zero Waste programs and his ability to support businesses to achieve the TRUE Zero Waste certification.
Organizing weekly beach cleanup sessions over the past three years gave Yasser a deep appreciation for both coastal and inland nature environments. Other than being an environmental advocate, he emphasizes on the value of community building, and actively connects various organizations & individuals together in the spirit of civic engagement.
Yasser is currently the Chief Stridy Officer at Stridy which is a not-for-profit that focuses on tackling waste management issues worldwide such as littering
I am the founder of Upcircle, a startup that makes it easy for the community to participate in the circular economy. Upcircle also works with property management companies and grassroots leaders to divert valuable resources from households away from waste streams. As a champion of resource circularity, I leveraged my experience working in tech companies like Apple and Siemens, to launch an app that enables peer-to-peer crowdsourcing of materials. The app successfully grew to 1,200 registered users with more than 100 listed projects within 3 months of launch, enabling more than 1,000 units of items transacted.
Virgile is an academic researcher who works for the CNRS (France) and the National University of Singapore. He heads an international collaborative lab between Singapore and France at the mechanobiology institute.
He is also in charge of the transition towards more sustainable practices in the lab and in the institute. He has already implemented various actions covering energy efficiency, consumables usage reduction, waste management...
