Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
Paris, 18 September 2012
The Complexity of the
E-waste Problem
Flavio CUCCHIETTI – Telecom Italia
TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
The e-waste problem
TELECOM ITALIA - PUBLIC
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Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
The e-waste problem
Photo: SayantanBera/CSE
©2009 Basel Action Network (BAN)
Photo: Alex Hofford
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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
The best way to deal with e-waste is …
… avoid (or at least minimize) it!
 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
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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
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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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
Avoid/minimize through standardization
 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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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
Avoid/minimize through standardization
 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/ITUT/climatechange/reportict-device.html
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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
Avoid/minimize through standardization
 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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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
Avoid/minimize through standardization
 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
TELECOM ITALIA - PUBLIC
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Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
Avoid/minimize through standardization
 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.
GWP [kg CO2 eq/p]
GWP [kg CO2 eq/p]
GWP [kg CO2 eq/p]
5
5
5
4
4
4
3
3
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
0
0
19
302
31
301
0
63
70
60
52
42
53
15
3
 EPSs of the same category have quite different GWP
Another opportunity for improvement!
TELECOM ITALIA - PUBLIC
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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
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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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
Work in progress
 Life cycle thinking is becoming common rule in companies
and in standardization
 In 2011 ITU-T standardized
charger” (L.1000)
the
 Standardization of External Power
equipment is advancing in ITU-T SG5
“Universal
Supply
mobile
for
fixed
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!
TELECOM ITALIA - PUBLIC
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TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
Forum on “The Complexity of the E-waste Problem”
| Renato Scotti <renato.scotti@telecomitalia.it>
Paris, 18 September 2012 - Flavio CUCCHIETTI
THANK YOU
flavio.cucchietti@telecomitalia.it
Report: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/report-ict-device.html
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