Sprint among four companies to receive the EPA’s first Sustainable
Materials Management (SMM) Electronics Challenge Champion Award, marking
Sprint’s 3rd EPA Award in 2014
Company Website:
http://www.sprint.com
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- (Business Wire)
Yesterday, Sprint was honored by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) with the first-ever Sustainable Materials Management (SMM)
Electronics Challenge Champion Award for its leadership in collecting
and responsibly managing electronics waste.
Sprint was one of only two recipients in the non-product category for
the Electronics Challenge Champion Award. This marks the third major
award that Sprint has received in 2014 by the EPA, following the Climate
Leadership Award and the WasteWise Partner of the Year.
“Sprint is proud to be an inaugural recipient of the SMM Electronics
Challenge Award in recognition of our leadership in electronics
recycling,” said Jeff Auman, vice president of product operations at
Sprint. “Device reuse and recycling plays not only a critical role in
Sprint’s business success, but also in helping us to significantly
reduce our environmental footprint. Our mobile device buyback
program has helped Sprint avoid more than $1 billion in costs and
has helped put more than $100 million back in customers’ pockets.”
The recognition ceremony took place at the SMM Electronics Reuse and
Recycling Forum at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Crystal City, Va. Awards
were presented by Mathy Stanislaus, EPA assistant administrator for the
Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response. In addition to the ceremony,
the forum brought together the electronics community to discuss shared
priorities that will advance end-of-life electronics recycling in the
U.S.
The Electronics Champion Award recognizes electronics original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) and retailers that exemplify exceptional leadership
and innovation in the electronics lifecycle, including the sustainable
management of electronics. The award judging criteria are based upon a
company’s vision (strategy, originality, value), coalition building
(collaboration, inclusiveness), execution (motivation, inspiration) and
impact (measurability, replicability).
According to the EPA, Americans throw away more than 2 million tons of
obsolete electronic products per year. Sprint played a pivotal role in
launching the SMM Electronics Challenge in 2012 to address the pervasive
issue of discarded electronics. In collaboration with other OEMs and
retailers, Sprint is one of eight companies that answered the EPA’s call
to voluntarily commit to increasing the amount of its collected
electronics.
Participants in the challenge were asked to send 100 percent of
collected used electronics to third-party certified recyclers and report
the information publicly. These certifications are based on strong
environmental standards for used electronics that maximize reuse and
recycling, minimize exposure to human health or the environment, ensure
safe management of materials by downstream handlers, and require
destruction of all data on used devices. The details on Sprint’s device
collections were published in this EPA
SMM Electronics Challenge Report.
“Electronics are made of valuable resources such as precious metals,
copper, plastic and glass – all of which require energy to extract and
manufacture,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “Improper handling of
discarded electronics can result in serious health consequences to
communities and workers. The efforts by these leaders to collect, track
and recycle used electronics is a great step towards addressing these
public health concerns, conserving materials, and reducing greenhouse
gas emissions.”
Additional Electronics Recycling Leadership
Sprint’s recognition in electronics waste extends beyond the Electronics
Challenge to additional industry-leading efforts.
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In 2011, Sprint became the first telecom provider to establish an Electronics
Stewardship Policy that addresses the full lifecycle of the
electronics it buys and sells from development to end-of-life. The
policy included several trendsetting goals: to collect nine devices
for reuse and recycling for every 10 sold; to collect 100 percent of
Sprint’s own facility e-waste for reuse and recycling; and to use 100
percent third-party certified e-waste recyclers and remanufacturers.
-
Sprint’s Electronics Stewardship Policy encourages the design of
devices that are essentially free of toxins and easier to repair and
recycle, sending zero electronic scrap to landfills or waste
incinerators, as well as using remanufacturers and recyclers with
trusted environmental, health safety and labor practices.
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Sprint drove industry efforts with Underwriters Laboratories to
develop UL 110 – the standard for sustainable mobile devices which
covers aspects ranging from materials and energy use to end-of-life
management. In 2013, the Green Electronics Council announced its
intent to adopt UL 110 as EPEAT’s standard for mobile devices.
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In 2013, Sprint set the Guinness World Record for the number of cell
phones recycled in one week: 103,582 – more than doubling the previous
record. Since 2001, Sprint has diverted nearly 60 million consumer
devices from landfills.
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Sprint is the only U.S. carrier to publicize its reuse rate. In 2013,
Sprint collected nearly 10 million mobile devices and more than 90
percent of them were reused. For every 1 million phones reused
versus recycled, 40 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity is
saved, enough to power more than 3,000 U.S. homes for an entire year.
About Sprint
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more
and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about
most. Sprint served more than 54 million customers as of June 30, 2014,
and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying
innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a
national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands
including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless;
instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a
global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction
Index rated Sprint as the most improved U.S. company in customer
satisfaction, across all 43 industries, over the last six years. Sprint
has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North
America in 2011, 2012 and 2013. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com
or www.facebook.com/sprint
and www.twitter.com/sprint.
Contacts:
Sprint
Marci VerBrugge-Rhind, 913-794-6319
marci.j.verbrugge@sprint.com
or
Christine
McCarthy, 617-939-8363
cmccarthy@conecomm.com
Source: Sprint
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