RENEW

Electronic waste and RENEW

Electronic waste (e-waste) refers to discarded electrical and electronic items such as wires, mobile phones, computers, batteries, etc. E-waste contains toxic substances and its improper disposal can lead to serious pollution and health problems. With the rapid changes in technology, shorter product life-cycles, changes in media (tapes, software, MP3) and falling prices, there is a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. Hence, there is a need to provide more avenues for individual consumers to recycle their e-waste.

RENEW is a flagship e-waste recycling programme launched by StarHub on Earth Hour in 2012. As an info-communications services provider retailing electronic products, RENEW reflects StarHub’s commitment to environmental sustainability. RENEW received The Green Award at the Asia Communication Awards for two years running, in 2014 and 2015.

Who is involved in RENEW?

In 2014, the programme expanded to a collaborative consumer-driven environmental effort among three partners - StarHub, DHL and TES. As environmentally responsible corporate citizens, the three partners have decided to work together to promote and encourage everyone to dispose of their e-waste in a responsible manner. Together with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) and National Environment Agency (NEA), this programme was expanded to provide more opportunities for the public to recycle their e-waste.

In line with the Singaporean Government’s 3P (People-Public-Private) approach to tackle environmental issues, the partners involved have taken various roles to provide the RENEW programme.

• StarHub engages a supplier to produce and provide the bins to interested locations

• DHL manages the logistics of collecting and delivering the e-waste from all bins to TES's e-waste recycling facility

• TES recycles the e-waste collected

And, of course, you! See the list below for RENEW bins that are publicly accessible and help to protect our environment and start recycling your e-waste!

Recycling made easy

You can recycle almost any electronic product in the RENEW bins, and do not have to be a DHL, StarHub or TES customer or to even have purchased the product from StarHub. However, all recycled items must be able to fit through the bin's 470mm x 120mm slot.

Here are some items you can recycle in the RENEW bins:

Important note to all: please tape up loose ends of the batteries, or seal batteries in ziplock bags before depositing them into the RENEW bins.

RENEW bins come with hinged latches for locking by site owners and should only be unlocked for collection by DHL. RENEW bins are also designed to prevent theft of items through the slot.

The five initial RENEW bins around Singapore had collected over one tonne of e-waste within five months. RENEW had also won the WWF Earth Hour Award for "Biggest Step Beyond The Hour" in 2012. Heartened by the success and with the aim of making e-waste recycling more convenient and accessible, StarHub increased the number of RENEW bin sites while improving the efficiency of the bin network.

After more than nine years of serving the community and driving real and measurable impact in environmental sustainability, the RENEW programme is coming to a close, and will cease all operations by 30 June 2021. Starting in January 2021, StarHub has begun removing less utilised bins across Singapore, and stopped accepting new participants into the programme.

Come July 2021, the Government’s regulated e-waste management system will officially start to operate. This approach, overseen by NEA, will ensure the proper collection and handling of e-waste as well as facilitate safe extraction of valuable resources from recycled e-waste.

For more information, please contact NEA directly.

The e-waste recycling process

E-waste collection is arranged by the site owners by calling 6635-3-639 (6635-E-NEW) and brought to TES’s recycling facility.

The electronic wastes are manually dismantled into smaller components which are then fed into a shredder to be broken down into increasingly smaller pieces. By this point, no data from the electronics is recoverable. Through various physical and chemical processes, metals are extracted and separated from the plastics and these are all melted down into bars or pellets for other uses.

StarHub, DHL and TES comply with all relevant laws applicable to the RENEW programme, including but not limited to the Personal Data Protection Act (Act 26 of 2012 of Singapore) for any collection, use and/or disclosure of personal data.