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Sustainability
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One of the targets of our sustainability program, EcoVision, is to double the global collection and recycling and the amount of recycled materials in our products by 2015 compared to 2009.
The amount of collection and recycling for 2013 (reported in 2014) was calculated at 31,500 tonnes, a 3% increase compared to 31,000 tonnes reported in 2013, mainly driven by lower weight of products and components in Healthcare, offset by higher volumes in Lighting. The 2009 baseline for global collection and recycling amounts was around 22,500 tonnes, based on the data retrieved from the WEEE collection schemes and from our own recycling and refurbishment services (mainly Healthcare).
Philips supports the principle of Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) as introduced in article 12.3 of the WEEE Directive. We therefore actively cooperate with our industry partners; the recycling community and other stakeholders to further develop these systems and their supporting financial mechanisms to create the boundary conditions to make IPR work. We see a transition to a Circular Economy as a practical way to implement the Individual Producer Responsibility principle in reality.
Philips supports the setup of recycling infrastructures together with industry partners, where we share a common strategy: creating sustainable financing schemes which guarantee the effective and environmentally sound collection and recycling of WEEE. This approach has proven to be successful in reducing environmental impact, minimizing the costs to society of these activities, raising consumer awareness, and increasing effectiveness of recycling.
This graph shows the amount of WEEE collected over the years. Refer to this document to see the methodology and metrics used to calculate the performance indicator.
To stimulate the use of recycled plastics we have set a target to use 3500 tons of recycled plastic in 2015. We calculate our performance by multiplying the weight of the recycled plastics per product and the number of products sold. Information on the amount of recycled polymers in plastics is provided by our suppliers.
We calculated the amount of recycled materials used in our products in 2014 at some 13,000 tonnes (2013: 14,000 tonnes), by focusing on the material streams plastics (Consumer Lifestyle), aluminum (Lighting), refurbished products, and spare parts harvesting (Healthcare) depending on the relevance in each sector. Our target is to double global collection and recycling and the amount of recycled materials in our products by 2015 compared to 2009, when the baseline was set at 7,500 tonnes.
Philips is a member of the Solving the E-Waste Problem (STEP) initiative, which is a UN supported global public-private initiative. STEP charter members include Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Dell, Ericsson, and Cisco Systems, along with governmental, NGO and academic institutions, as well as recycling and refurbishing companies.
The primary goals of this initiative are to standardize recycling processes globally to harvest valuable components in electrical and electronic scrap (e-scrap), extend the life of products and markets for their reuse, and harmonize world legislative and policy approaches to e-scrap.
To learn more about STEP please visit http://www.step-initiative.org/
An example of how the STEP initiative works in practice is our cooperation with other electronics companies in Africa. Since 2011, Philips has worked with HP, Nokia, Dell and Reclaimed Appliances in the e-waste solutions alliance for Africa. The Alliance is working together with several African governments on the set up of regional and national e-waste legislation. The goal of the Alliance is to facilitate the development of practical solutions for e-waste management in Africa resulting in sustainable solutions for the collection, recovery and recycling of waste from electrical and electronic equipment.
The en.lighten initiative was created in 2009 as a partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme ("UNEP"), two representatives of the Lighting Industry with the support of the Global Environment Facility. The National Lighting Test Centre became a partner in 2011. The en.lighten initiative has currently 44 partner countries.
The en.lighten initiative addresses the challenge of accelerating global market transformation to environmentally sustainable lighting technologies by developing a coordinated global strategy and providing technical support for the phase-out of inefficient lighting.
UNEP is in the process of piloting 32 countries during 2012 – 2013 aiming to establish collection and recycling activity for the environmentally sound management of lighting equipment in these countries. Philips Lighting provides strategic and practical support to introduce energy efficient lighting in these countries along with collection & recycling programs.
