Sony, a worldwide brand in consumer electronics, is launching its ‘Sony Take Back Recycling Program’ on 15 September. It will allow consumers to recycle all Sony-branded products for no fee at 75 drop-off centres throughout the US. Furthermore, it allows consumers to recycle other manufacturers’ consumer electronics products at market prices, and may include a recycling fee for some types of materials.
Meanwhile, almost one year ago to the day (on 13 September 2006) a press release was published announcing that ‘Today, the bipartisan Congressional E-Waste Working Group will bring together some of the nation’s largest e-waste stakeholders to develop a solution to the growing problem of obsolete electronics disposal’.
Since then, progress has been more evident in the corporate sector than the political (at least on a national level). Adding weight to this conclusion is Hewlett Packard, which announced earlier this summer that it had met its recycling targets six months early. Mark Hurd, HP chairman and CEO commented ‘Environmental responsibility is good business. We’ve reached the tipping point where the price and performance of IT are no longer compromised by being green, but are now enhanced by it.’
Returning to the Sony announcement, Ted Smith, Chair of the Computer TakeBack Campaign, a national coalition promoting responsible recycling and green design for consumer electronics, reflected ‘This is the kind of corporate responsibility that we rarely see in this country, but that we as consumers should insist on, before we buy any company’s products’.