Find out what HP is doing to reduce global e-waste

Australians are e-waste hoarders according to a study released recently, which defines the potential benefits of our recycling the approximately 16 million old mobile phones.

Says Rose Read, manager recycling, of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), those benefits could include the production of "3.2 million aluminium cans, 160,000 plastic fence posts, and [it would] save enough greenhouse gases to take 5180 cars permanently off the road".

On the other side of the consumerism fence, Fastcompany reports that electronics giant Hewlett Packard has banned the exporting of electronic waste from developed OECD and EU countries to "developing (non-OECD/E.U.) countries".

Electronic product waste, which contains heavy metals and other harmful contaminants, has long been shipped to developing countries for "processing", which, due to the lack of infrastructure, regulation or safety standards, can leave the local people and the environment sick.

HP, in an official statement, explains that it has updated its e-waste policy, which now reads as follows:

• "No prison or child labor will be used;
• Every reasonable effort will be made to control all electronic waste and prevent it from entering landfills or incinerators; and
• All exports and imports of electronic waste handled by HP and its authorized vendors will comply with existing international waste trade agreements and legal requirements.
• HP does not permit electronic waste to be exported from developed (member) countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) to developing (non-OECD/EU) countries, either directly or through intermediaries."

How do you dispose of your electronics when they reach the ends of their useful lives?