Product Environmental Management

Product Recycling

Technological advancements continually propel the evolution of new IT products that bring convenience to people’s lives in their workplace, entertainment, and leisure. From another perspective, the rapid replacement of products is resulting in the generation of large amounts of waste electronics and electrical products. The present problem of treating waste electronic and electrical products has already become among the most pressing international environmental protection issues. It is also a major environmental protection concern at Acer.

In the past, most waste electronic and electrical products were not treated; instead, they were usually burned or buried, causing serious environmental damage. Acer believes its responsibility extends beyond the design, manufacture, and sale of products, to include the recycling of discarded products. Confronting this issue, Acer supports the concept of Individual Producer Responsibility and believes that this will place “easily recyclable design considerations” as an important feedback mechanism directly reflected in product design. In this phase of product design, Acer continues to work toward detachable product designs. See Easy Disassemble Design.

Response to the European Union WEEE Directive

The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive entered into force on August 13, 2005. The Directive focuses on the precautionary prevention of the impact of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), and in addition, the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of such wastes so as to raise the ratio of resource regeneration and to abate the environmental damage by such waste products. Furthermore, responsibilities for the environmental improvement are given to the operators involved in the life cycle of electrical and electronic equipment, e.g. producers, distributors, consumers and operators for WEEE treatment, as to improve environmental performance.

Acer’s products are marketed in various European countries. Based on the extended producers’ responsibilities for recycling and compliance with the EU’s WEEE Directive and each nation’s regulations, Acer has initiated the planning for recycling of waste products and has joined the local recycling systems in European countries. Therefore, for customers who wish to declare any IT products unserviceable, we advise them to contact qualified local recyclers to ensure proper waste treatment.

Recycling Channel Contact Information for European Nations

  • Product design

Member States shall encourage the designer and producer to provide electrical and electronic equipments of easy disassemble and recycling. In this context, Member States shall take appropriate measures so that producers do not prevent, through specific design features or manufacturing processes, WEEE from being reused, unless such specific design features or manufacturing processes present overriding advantages, for example, with regard to the protection of the environment and/or safety requirements.

Acer supports the concept of Individual Producer Responsibility and believes that this will place “easily recyclable design considerations” as an important feedback mechanism directly reflected in product design. In this phase of product design, Acer continues to work toward easy-disassemble product designs. See Easy Disassemble Design.

  • Treatment

According to WEEE Annex II, as a minimum, 15 items of substances, preparations and components shown in the following table have to be removed from any separately collected WEEE:

No.

Substances, preparations and components to be removed according to WEEE Annex II

1

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) containing capacitors in accordance with Council Directive 96/59/EC of 16 September 1996 on the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated terphenyls (PCB/PCT)

2

Mercury containing components such as switches or backlighting lamps

3

Batteries

4

Printed circuit boards of mobile phones generally and of other devices if the surface of the printed circuit board is greater than 10cm2  

5

Toner cartridges liquid and pasty as well as colour toner

6

Plastic containing brominated flame retardants

7

Asbestos waste and components which contain asbestos

8

Cathode ray tubes

9

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) or hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) hydrocarbons (HC)

10

Gas discharge lamps

11

Liquid crystal displays (together with their casing where appropriate) of a surface greater than 100 square centimetres and all those back-lighted with gas discharge lamps

12

External electric cables

13

Components containing refractory ceramic fibres as described in Commission Directive 97/69/EC of 5 December 1997 adapting to technical progress Council Directive 67/548/EEC relating to the classification packaging and labeling of dangerous substances

14

Components containing radioactive substances with the exception of components that are below the exemption thresholds set in Article 3 of and Annex I to Council Directive 96/29/Euratom of May 13, 1996 laying down basic safety standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against dangers arising from ionizing radiation

15

Electrolyte capacitors containing substances of concern (height > 25 mm diameter > 25 mm or proportionately similar volume)

Three items should be treated by following standard disposals:

  1. Cathode ray tubes: The fluorescent coating has to be removed,
  2. Equipment containing gases that are ozone depleting or have a global warming potential (GWP) above 15, such as those contained in foams and refrigeration circuits: the gases must be properly extracted and properly treated. Ozone-depleting gases must be treated in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2037/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 June 2000 on substances that deplete the ozone layer.
  3. Gas discharge lamps: The mercury shall be removed.
  • Information for users

Valuable metals presence in electrical and electronic products, such as copper and gold presence in PCB plates, and a few electrical and electronic components necessarily disposed by special manners (as shown in WEEE Annex II), could be worthy resources when properly separated or environmentally hazardous materials when disposed improperly. (For example, the combustion of PCB plates might produce toxic dioxin and furan.) Therefore, the end-of-life electronic products should not be treated as unsorted municipal waste and should be collected separately and specially for reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery in order to achieve resource sustaining, environmental protection and preservation of human’s health.

As WEEE is sent to the collection systems, it will be disassembled to recycle the reusable components and to remove the substances, preparations and components shown in Annex II. The WEEE will be then pulverized, classified and sorted out to recycle valuable metals (such as iron, copper, aluminum) and plastics for reuse. The unclassified materials can also be regenerated by other forms of recovery to raise their recycling value.

The key point of return and collection of WEEE to special recycling systems is the product consumer or user, who is the controller to send WEEE to the right places. Accordingly, if there is any IT product to be discarded, please send it to local qualified recycling system to ensure proper recycling of IT wastes.

  • Symbol for the marking of electrical and electronic equipment

The WEEE Directive requires producers to mark electrical and electronic equipment put on the market after August 13, 2005 with a 'crossed-out wheeled bin' symbol. The symbol consists of a crossed-out wheeled bin with a black thick line below. This is to differentiate the WEEE symbol from other recycling symbols in WEEE Directives, e.g. the symbol for waste batteries recycling. This is also for reminding consumers not to dispose of WEEE as unsorted municipal waste and to collect such WEEE separately. Please check local regulations for disposal of electronic products.

http://www.werohs.com/weee_l2.gif

Symbol for the marking of electrical and electronic equipment
 (The symbol indicating separate collection for electrical and electronic equipment)

  • Information for treatment facilities

In order to facilitate reuse and collection of WEEE, including maintenance, upgrade, refurbishment and recycling, Acer following the WEEE Directive will provide reuse and treatment information for each type of new EEE put on the market within one year after the equipment is put on the market.

Until each manufacturer’s responsibility systems are fully established, Acer reaches out to assume the manufacturers’ product recycling responsibilities. Acer is working to comply with the EU’s WEEE Directive and each nation’s laws requiring participation in recycling systems, as well as planning for recycling of waste products. The following information concerning resource recycling information in Taiwan, Europe, U.S.& Canada, Japan and India is compiled below for consumers’ reference.

Taiwan
Recycling of waste IT products in Taiwan is handled through a publicly managed and operated system. Operators receive fees from the Resource Recycling Management Fund based on annual operation volumes and recycling clearance and disposal rates. The Recycling Fund Management Board under the Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, is in charge of determining recyclables, issuing treatment subsidies, auditing and verifying treatment volumes, and managing recyclers’ treatment and administrative operations. Taiwan offers a wide spectrum of waste IT product recycling channels, able to utilize clean-up teams, second-hand goods operators, resource recycling organizations, and recycling locations established at IT product retail sales sites. Taiwan has eleven registered waste IT product treatment enterprises. These diverse channels have made it possible to obtain over 90% of required resources from recycled waste IT products.

Acer coordinates efforts with Taiwan’s recycling system by not only making annual payments to the Resource Recycling Management Fund, but also participating in public hearings on recycling, clearance and treatment fee rates to better understand Resource Recycling Management Fund operations and provide suggestions on recycling, clearance and treatment fee rate adjustments.

Central and local governments, operators, consumers, and recyclers all work together to help Taiwan’s publicly managed and operated recycling system achieve progressive results. For information about resource recycling in Taiwan, please refer to the EPA’s Recycling Fund Management Board website:

Based on our extended producer responsibility, Acer has visited several principal waste IT product recycling factories in Taiwan to understand the recycling and treatment process, and follow-up recycling material routes as well as current problems. The information collected during these visits will help to adopt relevant environmental protection measures. Plastic casings of waste IT products containing spray paint or gilded finishing create more difficulties with recycling and treatment. Acer has turned this problem over to our design division and will continue to work closely with recyclers and recycling factories in the future to better coordinate recycling and product design channels.

Estimated number of Acer PCs recycled in Taiwan
To understand the recycling status of IT products in Taiwan, Acer visited the Recycling Fund Management Board to access data of the annual amount recycled, the treatment status, the possibility for discarding IT products, and the basis of calculation. Based on the calculation, the sum of Acer products recycled in Taiwan are figured as such: 73,261 PCs were recycled in 2006 at 31.2% and 869 metric tons; 77,763 PCs were recycled in 2007 at 29.8% and 876 metric tons; 96,652 PCs were recycled in 2008 at 29.47% and 1,089 metric tons. The calculation and estimation methods are as follow:

Estimation procedure: (for example: Acer notebooks recycled in Taiwan in 2006)

Estimation methods:

Step 1: PC sales amounts in Taiwan1

year

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Sale amounts
Desktop Taiwan

2,392,140

2,054,743

2,154,307

2,204,320

2,448,428

2,430,360

1,807,214

Acer

129,230

129,416

137,527

178,618

187,350

288,396

326,351

Notebook Taiwan

251,926

270,253

373,195

466,831

554,607

751,876

619,459

Acer

87,465

72,259

87,613

100,895

88,434

208,636

207,729

1 Taiwan PC sales amounts: Recycling Fund Management Board/Taiwan EPA (Registration body); Acer PC sales amounts in Taiwan: Gartner report.

Step 2: Disposal probability in Taiwan2

Pn(The nth year)

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

Desktop Disposal Probability in the nth year

0.0097

0.0797

0.1801

0.2145

0.1667

0.3493

Notebook Disposal Probability in the nth year

0.0097

0.0680

0.1602

0.2330

0.1602

0.3689

2 Taiwan EPA Report, EPA-94-HA15-03-A085

Step 3: Calculating the disposal amount
Disposal amount = Annual sales amount (past 6 years) * Probability for product disposal (step 2)
For example: Disposal amount of 2006 = S1*P1+S2*P2+S3*P3+S4*P4+S5*P5+S6*P6, where S1=Sale amount in 2005, …and S6=Sale amount in 2000

Step 4: Amount recycled in Taiwan
From the annual report of Recycling Fund Management Board/Taiwan EPA (Registration body), http://recycle.epa.gov.tw/epa/index.asp

Step 5: Calculating recycling rates of PC products in Taiwan
Recycling rate in Taiwan = Amount recycled in Taiwan/ disposal amount in Taiwan

Step 6: Acer amount recycled
Assuming the recycling rate of Acer products is identical to total IT products in Taiwan.
Acer amount recycled = Acer disposal amount in Taiwan * Recycling rate in Taiwan

Acer amount recycled in 2006 and 2008

Year 2006 2007 2008
Desktop Taiwan Disposal Amount, piece 2,255,911 2,201,863

2,313,126
Amount Recycled, piece 1,112,364 934,455

988,087
Recycling rates,% 49.3% 42.4%

42.72%
Acer Disposal Amount, piece 146,112 166,337

205,464
Amount Recycled, piece 72,046 70,592

87,767
Notebook Taiwan Disposal Amount, piece 342,977 414,238

527,465
Amount Recycled, piece 4,712 31,412

38,255
Recycling rates,% 1.4% 7.6%

7.25%
Acer Disposal Amount, piece 88,456 94,570

122,513
Amount Recycled, piece 1,215 7,171

8,885
PC（Desktop＋Notebook） Acer Amount Recycled, piece 73,261 77,763

96,652
Recycling rates1,% 31.2% 29.8%

29.47%
Weight recycled2, kg 869,412 875,788

1,088,744

 

1 Acer PC recycling rate in Taiwan = Acer amount recycled in Taiwan/ Acer disposal amount in Taiwan, PC = DT+NB
2 Basis of calculation (desktop: 12kg, notebook: 4kg).

Europe

To reduce the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment, improve recycling and reuse to minimize environmental impact, the EU’s WEEE Directive came into force in August 2005. Acer products are marketed in various European countries, and we have joined the local recycling program to meet the WEEE Directive. Therefore, for customers who wish to declare any IT products unserviceable, we advise them to contact qualified local recyclers to ensure proper waste treatment.

United States and Canada
The U.S. waste electronic product recycling laws are the responsibility of respective states. Each state pursues a different approach with varying rates of success. The improper handling of waste electronic products results in a waste of resources as well as environmental and health hazards. The U.S. EPA has therefore come out with a Plug-in To eCycling Campaign. The campaign encourages voluntary consumer cooperation by promoting the donation of old information products and providing lists of recycling centers prepared to handle waste electronic products. Upon learning of this campaign, Acer has taken active steps to understand and evaluate its execution and benefits. To gather more information and support, Acer is also planning to send representatives to visit the U.S. EPA as well as the California state government and various recyclers.

In 2003, the U.S. state of California promulgated the Electronic Waste Recycling Act, which set the framework for a waste electronic product recycling system. Acer in California has fully cooperated and complied with related regulations. The California government has made it convenient for the public to recycle waste electronic products by establishing a reuse and recycling search engine. The public can search for recycling channels and attain related contact information based on location.

Moreover, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are leading the way in promoting the importance of properly handling waste electronic products. NGOs are also actively promoting the implementation of waste electronic product extended producer responsibility. The U.S. Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) is an example of one NGO that urges consumers to choose products from companies with recycling plans or products that have registered with the EPEAT. The SVTC further supports extended producer responsibility legislation and consumers can also use lists provided by the SVTC to find recyclers in their areas. Additionally, the Basel Action Network (BAN) has initiated the Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship campaign in the U.S. The campaign seeks to gain assurances that waste electronic products will not be incinerated, buried or shipped to developing countries. BAN is willing to provide information regarding the process of recycling waste electronic products as well as a detailed list of recycling industry signatories to the e-Stewardship Initiative. Acer thus encourages consumers in the U.S. to channel all their waste electronic products to the recyclers listed by SVTC and BAN.

As for used battery recycling, Acer is a member of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC). Should consumers have any unserviceable notebook computer batteries, call the consumer service hotline at 1-877-723-1297 or email to customerservice@call2recycle.org for further information.

Japan

Manufacturers are asked to shoulder product recycling and handling duties in accordance with Japan’s Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources. Acer Japan thus honors local laws to join the local PC recycling organization-PC3R Promotion Association as a partnering member. Should you wish to declare any Acer products unserviceable, please contact PC3R Promotion Association and Acer Japan at the following websites:

India
According to inspections conducted by environmental groups such as Greenpeace, BAN and the SVTC, the dumping of global waste electronic products is already gradually shifting from China to other developing nations such as India and some countries in South America. The high value of recycling old electronic products means there are many recyclers willing to get into the business. But after the essentials are stripped, the remaining parts of waste electronic products often contain heavy metals that cause severe soil and water source pollution when exposed to the environment. Inappropriate handling of discarded electronic products not only causes environmental damage, but can also endanger the health of workers lacking appropriate equipment or technology. In the wake of the trend for advanced nations to establish regulations on waste information product recycling management systems, Acer feels there is an even greater need for similar regulations to address the problems of recycling systems in developing countries.

In order to reduce the instances of inappropriate treatment of discarded information products, Acer has made plans for an e-Waste Program to recycle our products in the burgeoning Indian market on a free and voluntary basis. The program will take website or e-mail registrations followed by consumers sending their old items back to Acer India for treatment. Recyclable items include desktops, notebooks, monitors, projectors and servers. The program is Acer’s initial step into product recycling on a free and voluntary basis. We plan to provide even better recycling services in the future and would like to gradually implement an EPR to help fulfill our corporate responsibilities with annual targets and incentive systems toward society. And Acer continues to support the Indian government in instituting electronics waste recycling legislation. We are also working with the government to enhance buyers’ interest in recycling electronic wastes.

Response to European Battery Directive

The Directive of Batteries and Accumulators and Waste Batteries and Accumulators (2006/66/EC) entered into force on September 26, 2008. The intention of this Directive is to establish rules for prohibition of placing on the market batteries and accumulators containing hazardous substances, and to establish specific rules for the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of waste batteries and accumulators to promote a high level of collection and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators. This Directive shall apply to all types of batteries and accumulators, regardless of their shape, volume, weight, material composition or use (except those with military purposes and those designed to be sent into space)

  • Product prohibition

From September 26, 2008, prohibition on the placing on the market of:
- All batteries or accumulators, whether or not incorporated into appliances, that contain more than 0.0005 % of mercury by weight (except button cells with a mercury content of no more than 2 % by weight)
- Portable batteries or accumulators, including those incorporated into appliances that contain more than 0.002% of cadmium by weight

  • Product design

Based on the pollution prevention principle, Acer avoids using hazardous materials from design phase of a product such as mercury, cadmium and lead. Therefore, all Acer products comply with the requirement of the Battery Directive.

In product recycling phase, batteries on the list of Annex II of WEEE are required to be treated separately. Due to Acer’s Individual Producer Responsibility concept, the product parts listed in the Annex II shall be designed in a way as easy-to-identify and easy-to-disassemble (See Easy Disassemble Design) and shall be described in Disassembly Instructions for their locations and types. The waste batteries are thus can be easily and safely removed and recycled.

  • Information for users

Batteries contain liquid, acid and metals. The landfill of these materials together with municipal waste will leach out waste liquid, acid and heavy metals to pollute the soil and groundwater, or lead to further poisoning of the human body. The incineration of them will also have heavy metal contamination in the air or in the ashes. The secondary pollution will reach also to the soil and the groundwater. If batteries are recycled properly, the valuable resource can be reused again and the impact of the hazardous materials can also be minimized. Therefore, the waste batteries and accumulators shall not be placed in landfill or incinerated. Instead, they shall be collected and treated separately from municipal waste to professional recycling facilities in order to reserve resources and to protect human health and the environment.

The batteries into the recycling facilities will be then be disassembled, pulverized, classified and sorted out to recycle valuable metals (such as lithium, zinc, manganese, nickel, cobalt and iron). The unclassified materials can also be regenerated by other forms of recovery to raise their recycling value. But the key point of return and collection of waste batteries to professional recycling facilities is the product consumer, who is the controller to send batteries to the right places.

Based on the extended producers’ responsibilities for recycling and compliance with the EU’s Battery Directive and each nation’s regulations, Acer has initiated the planning for recycling of waste batteries and has joined the local recycling systems in European countries. Batteries for discarding should be sent to the local franchisee or qualified recycling system to ensure proper recycling of waste batteries.

  • Symbols for batteries, accumulators and battery packs

The symbol indicating ‘separate collection’ for all batteries and accumulators shall be the crossed-out wheeled bin shown below. It is to remind consumers not to dispose waste batteries and accumulators together with municipal waste.

Symbols for batteries, accumulators and battery packs for separate collection
(The symbol indicating ‘separate collection’ for all batteries and accumulators)

All batteries, accumulators or bottom cells that contain mercury more than 0.0005%, cadmium more than 0.002% or lead more than 0.004% shall be labeled with the chemical symbols of the heavy metals (Hg, Cd, or Pb) under the crossed-out wheeled bin symbols.