forum on the complexity of the e-waste problem paris, 18 september 2012 flavio cucchietti –...

Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”

Paris, 18 September 2012

Flavio CUCCHIETTI – Telecom Italia

The Complexity of the E-waste Problem

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| Renato Scotti <[email protected]>TELECOM ITALIA GROUP

TELECOM ITALIA - PUBLIC


Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI

The e-waste problem

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The e-waste problem

©2009 Basel Action Network (BAN)

Photo: Alex Hofford

Photo: SayantanBera/CSE

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The best way to deal with e-waste is …

From the manufacturing phase through: E-waste conscious design Avoid use of heavy pollutants Minimization on the use of resources

Regulations and standards

During the life of equipment Prolonging its lifetime Designing for reuse/multiple use

At end of life Designing for easy disassembly

… avoid (or at least minimize) it!

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Avoid/minimize through standardization

Environmentally conscious companies have e-waste minimization programmes in place but: Such programmes are difficult to set up and manage The extra cost can discourage them As individual companies they can have little impact

Need to create critical mass and act soon Regulation is complex and takes long time

The ICT Sector should move up

Standardization can fill the gap and lead the market

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An example the external power supply (EPS) Market loudly demands for interoperable, reusable and

longer life equipment Volume produced is enormous (>4Billion/year) It is about 1 million tons of electronic equipment

It could correspond to an 1000km queue of trucks full op EPSs

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The ITU/GeSI report “An Energy-aware Survey on ICT Device Power Supplies” gives relevant information on the problem and on the improvement opportunities

http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/report-ict-device.html

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Use of resources and evaluation of future e-waste can be based upon the weight of the EPSs

• Huge weight differences among same class EPSs

• Need and opportunity to improve

Aligning them with the best (lightest) in the corresponding category could reduce the use of resources (and e-waste) by 300 thousand tons per year

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Availability of standardized EPSs would avoid unnecessary production of billions elements per year

The report estimates potential e-waste reduction of 600 thousand tons per year

Further reduction is expected as the Recommendation includes requirements on: longer life duration electrical strength weight limits

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Environmental analysis Global Warming potential (GWP)

Figure 62: Low Power PSU GWP results

Figure 63: Medium Power PSU GWP results.

Figure 64: High Power PSU GWP results.

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42 53 15 3

GWP [kg CO2 eq/p]

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2

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4

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63 70 60 52

GWP [kg CO2 eq/p]

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19 302 31 301

GWP [kg CO2 eq/p]

EPSs of the same category have quite different GWP Another opportunity for improvement!

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Another example – The ADSL access gateway (AG)

From 2009, Telecom Italia established strict environmental requirements on AGs (market of millions pieces): Energy efficiency Recycled and recyclable plastics No use of blends No chlorinated No brominated Easy dismantling

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Work in progress

Life cycle thinking is becoming common rule in companies and in standardization

In 2011 ITU-T standardized the “Universal mobile charger” (L.1000)

Standardization of External Power Supply for fixed equipment is advancing in ITU-T SG5

Next meeting (and hopefully finalization ) next October in Geneva

It will enable huge savings and e-waste avoidance

The best way to deal with e-waste is …

… avoid (or at least minimize) it!

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THANK YOU

[email protected]

Report: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/report-ict-device.html

forum on the complexity of the e-waste problem paris, 18 september 2012 flavio cucchietti –...

Documents

ewaste problem slide

ewaste problem paris

ewaste avoidance

potential ewaste reduction

ewaste conscious design

flavio cucchietti work

evaluation of future

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