Behind the numbers in 2014: Electrical waste

Target:
Continue to reuse and recycle 100% of electrical waste returned to us.

How we did:
We continued to reuse and recycle 100% of electrical waste that was returned to us in 2014.

The detail:
We don’t stop thinking about the environmental impact of our set top boxes, modems and routers once they’re in our customers’ homes. That’s because we want our products to have a low waste impact across their entire life cycle.

In 2013 we succeeded in becoming a zero electrical waste to landfill business and in 2014 committed to build on this achievement while making further improvements. These improvements included making it easier for our field teams to return old electrical items through our Little Red Shed sites by using vehicles which are already travelling between our Little Red Sheds and our Big Red Shed. By doing this, we reduced the need for dedicated equipment collection vehicles, which is helping us take back waste electrical equipment more easily, more cheaply and with fewer vehicles, all while using less fuel.

With the support of our partner, Regenersis, we continue to process over two million set top boxes and modems annually for recycling. In 2014 we even evolved the process to make it fully automated – removing any risk of human error. Automating this testing has not just had a positive impact on production levels, processing costs and flexibility – it’s also radically reduced the possibility of a bad customer experience, and cut down on failures when equipment is sent back out to customers after refurbishment. In addition, by focusing on reusing parts and making them more durable we now require fewer new parts and by working with local suppliers we’re able to reduce costs, journey times and emissions.

Find out more about our new product goal here.