1 Introduction
1.1 Background and study scope
URS New Zealand has been contracted by the Ministry for the Environment to carry out this End-of-life Cell Phones Product Stewardship Study.
This study is expected to assist policy development in regards to product stewardship. It follows from the discussion paper on product stewardship released in August 2005. The document looked at ways of improving the effectiveness, stability and uptake of existing and future schemes. In particular, it is proposed that light-handed legislation is introduced to back-up voluntary arrangements when needed. A number of specific case studies have been commissioned to examine the interaction of a product stewardship policy with the sector. The five case studies that have been commissioned are cell phones, whiteware, paints, used agricultural chemical containers and tyres.
In New Zealand, and for the purposes of this survey, product stewardship is defined [Ministry for the Environment. 2005.Product Stewardship and Water Efficiency Labelling: New Tools to Reduce Waste. Discussion Document.] as "an approach whereby producers, importers, brand owners, retailers, customers and other parties involved in the life-cycle of a product accept a responsibility for the environmental impacts of the product through their life-cycle".
A fully-fledged product stewardship scheme for cell phones would be directed at improving environmental performance across all components of the cell phone life-cycle - manufacture, distribution, use, collection and disposal. Manufacturers would be encouraged to investigate better Design for Environment (DfE) options (such as increasing lifespan and more effective disassembly) and there would be some evaluation on means to minimise distribution distances. Consumers would be educated regarding the most environmentally responsible use of cell phones (such as increasing lifespan and reducing energy consumption). The focus of this evaluation, however, is only on issues arising from the disposal of cell phones. The manufacture, distribution and to a certain extent, use, components of the cell phone lifecycle are not able to be significantly influenced in New Zealand - primarily because of the small size of our market. Product stewardship, as applied to cell phones in New Zealand therefore becomes environmentally responsible reuse, recycle and disposal options.
Internationally, disposal of old cell phones is rapidly becoming a significant environmental and social issue. Approximately 1.7 billion people use cell phones as their main form of communication. Every second, 23 mobile phones are manufactured. Globally, in 2003, 470 million cell phones, equating to 61,000 tonnes, [Assuming an average cell phone weigh of 130 gms.] were discarded. [Statistics obtained from Motorola website.] Based on research in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom only about 10-15% of "discarded" cell phones are sent to landfill. The remainder are either passed on to friends and family or stored in drawers.
According to latest figures released by the Ministry for the Environment, discarded electronic equipment (e-waste) currently generates up to 80,000 tonnes of landfill waste a year. Consumers increasingly expect companies and retailers to have initiatives in place that allow the responsible return, recycling and reuse of used electronic goods, and most companies in the telecommunications industry, both manufacturers and network providers, have now recognised this and have adopted internal environmental policies for recycling their products. Cell phones are a small, but important component of the overall e-waste generated.
1.2 Objectives
The key objective of these case studies is to assist in the development of a central government position on product stewardship policy in New Zealand (including non-regulatory mechanisms) that is well matched to the needs of the industry. The agreed approaches is to 'case study' or thoroughly evaluate existing schemes and their potential interaction with the Ministry's proposed policy, and to use this as a basis for recommendations on an appropriate policy framework and further scheme development.
The Ministry wants this project to: [Ministry for Environment. February 2006. Used Cell Phone Recovery Product Stewardship Study Brief.]
- under guidance of a sector group, study the issues associated with the recovery of end-of-life cell phones, case study any existing product stewardship schemes to address this and establish what assistance a national product stewardship policy could offer;
- develop a process that results in a policy well matched to the needs of industry and assists industry groups in understanding what the implications are, if any, of that policy proposal for existing schemes.
The specific terms of reference for the study are to:
- describe the end-of-life cell phone problem and the stakeholders involved;
- describe current schemes;
- evaluate how the current schemes perform and their on-going stability;
- estimate potential performance and environmental and economic benefits of achieving this;
- assess, design and cost tools needed to achieve the scheme's potential;
- assess whether the availability of regulatory tools could further increase scheme potential, and if so, justify timing and intervention.
1.3 Case study approach
Both the existing private sector cell phone product stewardship schemes and the central government product stewardship policy are in early stages, and are therefore being developed in parallel. Although both Telecom's and Vodafone's scheme have been running for a number of years, they are currently being significantly expanded upon and relaunched as the existing schemes were deemed to be ineffective. At the time of writing this report (April 2006) the Vodafone scheme was about to be launched and the Telecom scheme was in advanced stages of planning. As a result, we have adopted the approach of evaluating the proposed schemes (as opposed to existing schemes) for this case study.
We believe that this approach provides a more robust input to the potential for government, through potential policy, regulatory or financial intervention, to promote and support the proposed schemes. Experience with the previous schemes has, however, also been taken into account as a means of establishing the barriers to success - essentially what works and what doesn't. This process of evaluating existing schemes has obviously already been carried out by both Vodafone and Telecom to inform development of their new schemes.
Initial information collection has been completed through research and one-on-one discussions with sector group members, such as network providers Vodafone and Telecom and broader stakeholder groups. An evaluation framework was then developed to help with analysis. An initial evaluation report was prepared and circulated to the two cell phone sector group participants, Vodafone and Telecom, to obtain their input and feedback. The report was also reviewed by the Ministry for the Environment and our independent peer reviewer for the project, Susie Wood. A list of the stakeholders that were consulted during this case study evaluation is provided in Appendix A.
1.4 Currently preferred product stewardship policy
In the recently released discussion document [Ministry for the Environment. 2005.Product Stewardship and Water Efficiency Labelling: New Tools to Reduce Waste. Discussion Document.] the preferred product stewardship policy mix was described as having two main features:
- Product stewardship agreements - to be negotiated and signed by industry sector, either collectively or by individual firms.
- A regulatory safety net - enabled by new legislation to allow regulation of free-riders (defined as organisations benefiting commercially by not adopting product stewardship practices and therefore saving on operational costs) and allow for mandatory schemes, where necessary.
Under this approach, the government would focus on high priority wastes - defined as those with significant problems with disposal.
The effects of this preferred policy mix on the current initiatives within the cell phone sectors will be assessed as part of this report. The assumption is made that the cell phone sector will not be identified (in their own right, as opposed to being part of the electronic or e-waste mix) as a high priority sector and therefore will not be a candidate for the second feature that is the regulatory safety net.
