Just after I blogged on Sun’s eco-responsibility efforts, a press release came from IBM. For the last few years, IT manufacturers seem to be taking real initiatives to deal with their end-of-life and end-of-use products.
IBM’s press release on last year's recycling and renewal efforts (recycling used for renewal, refurbish, reuse, and resale in the secondary market) reveals exciting numbers for remanufacturing industry and environment. IBM started its recycling efforts many years ago to deal with the products returning from lease contracts. These are end-of-use products most of the time still have value in them and therefore presents a source of revenue. Of course, then came the end-of-life computers, which cannot be used because either they are technologically obsolete or too worn-out to be used. Main concern in the second category was how to dispose them in an environmentally safe way and how to extract usable parts (if any) and materials, such as plastics, metals etc...
IBM deals with products in both categories, they refurbish, remanufacture, and resale or re-lease. Aside from IT equipment, IBM also refurbishes and resells medical diagnostics equipment such as MRI. Each week IBM Global Asset Recovery Services takes in more than 40,000 pieces of IT gear from clients worldwide. The equipment, which includes IBM and non-IBM servers, PCs, laptops, mainframes, is recycled or refurbished at 22 sites around the world. In 2006 alone, IBM had an overall 99.22% recovery rate and an incredibly low landfill rate of 0.78%. Since 1995, IBM has documented the collection and recovery of over 1.4 billion pounds of product and product waste worldwide and they achieved to divert 1.2 billion from landfills.
These numbers are very encouraging and exciting. Now we know that as long as they get products returned they deal with them properly, try to recover these products and materials for new uses and divert them from landfills as much as they can. But, what is the actual return rate among all products they sell? IBM collects a very significant amount of products, and they recover 99%, but one can’t help but wonder what percent of end-of-use and end-of-life IBM products they can get back. If you have any idea, data or information please share with us!
Please check IBM take-back practices here, and read the press release here.
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