The Chicken or the Egg?

Which came first - the chicken or the egg? In this entry we look to see what came first - electronic recycling legislation or industry led electronic recycling? In the case of IBM and Germany, the latter came first.

The European Union and its European Commission has created a electronic take back program under Directive 2002/96/EC (commonly known as WEEE - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) which has issued guidelines on preventing companies from putting harmful materials into electronic equipment and promotes the collection and recycling of electronic equipment. Under this directive, each member country enacts legislation to accomplish these outcomes and tailor the legislation to its own country. This legislation mostly places the burden of collection on industry within the EU. This legislation isn’t revolutionary in Europe. The first take back programs began in Switzerland in 1989 and in Germany in 1990. But recently, the EU Commission has been talking about setting mandatory collection targets based upon weight and the market share of the company. At this point in time, this has not been undertaken, and is of a controversial nature because it places a significant burden on industry to meet these goals.

In order to get more information on the WEEE and Electronic take back in Europe, we consulted Dr. Reinhard Hoehn, who is one of the executives in Corporate Environmental Affairs at IBM in Stuttgart, Germany. Dr. Hoehn gave us a great presentation about IBM’s efforts to reuse and recycle electronic equipment worldwide.

On a logistics end, this directive and subsequent legislation can become a serious problem for IBM. Considering IBM operates in a handful of countries in the EU, having different legislation in each country can pose a significant burden for compliance. With this, IBM has undergone efforts to harmonize member legislation so that IBM can have singular compliance. IBM, as a company, has a worldwide policy in regards to reuse and recycling – which is exciting to know – so that if take back legislation is enacted in Europe and is stringent, those in the USA can benefit from such legislation.

Most of the product take back is done at the corporate level which IBM can handle through minimal logistics. It is IBM's public take back program that can cause some headaches.

1^st IBM has to coordinate with municipalities so that it can collect the electronics curbside or at a municipal location. IBM has a coordination group that provides a dual role between government and the company because reporting to the EU is based upon market share .

2^nd The municipality must give the electronics back to industry in a recycling bin and industry replaces the full bin with an empty one.

3^rd Then the reusing/recycling begins at an IBM contracted facility.

It was pointed out to us by Dr. Hoehn that there is free movement of goods in the European Union, but not free movement of waste. This creates an interesting dilemma for IBM in Europe whereby they have to be careful when transporting waste because it is illegal to transport lead and other materials that are used in old computers but by law have to comply with the take back legislation.

IBM is at the forefront of reusing and recycling - which at the end of the day is good for the earth, and good business. Since IBM sold off its PC business to Lenovo in 2004, IBM mostly does business in the large server market. The good business of reusing and recycling can help IBM since a large portion of these servers are leased to companies. If IBM takes them back and reuses them they can reenter into service in the refurbished market.

Some interesting statistics from IBM and the Environment - it makes you think what type of computer do I use? And are they more are less environmentally friendly?