Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Written by: Aron Raj, Journalist, AOPG

Globally, tech vendors and businesses are now looking to reduce their carbon output and create more sustainable products. Not only do these new innovations help protect the environment, but they also end up improving a company’s reputation when it comes to using energy-efficient and environmentally friendly products.

But have you ever wondered what do businesses do with their old laptops, phones, fax machines, printers, monitors, servers, hard disks, chargers, cables and such when they are no longer needed? Just like software, hardware needs upgrading as well. While some legacy infrastructure can be modernised, most are often written off and sent for disposal. But how are these products disposed of?

According to Malaysia’s Department of Environment (DOE), the e-waste recycling rate in Malaysia is not more than 25%, which means hundreds of thousands of tonnes of e-waste are disposed of in landfills every year. Surveys showed recycling rates have remained at 25% and discovered that recyclers preferred to collect big volumes of e-waste from large corporates and factories as collecting small quantities from millions of consumers was not profitable.

The World Economic Forum recorded that Malaysia produces one million tonnes of e-waste out of the 50 million tonnes produced globally. According to the local government, only about 25% of the e-waste in Malaysia is recycled. Remember all those shipping containers with thrash that were sent here and made headlines some time ago? Yup, some of those were also made up of e-waste.

So why are businesses not disposing of them properly? According to Varinderjit Singh, General Manager of Lenovo Malaysia, businesses have three major concerns when it comes to disposing of old physical assets:

• Secure data destruction – as some of these assets may still hold valuable data, businesses want to be assured that can be destroyed and disposed of in a manner whereby no data can be recovered.
• Maximum remarket returns – it is obvious that when you dispose of products of value, you will want some return from them, no matter how old they may be. For businesses, they want to be sure they are able to get some returns when disposing of old assets. This includes the ability to even reuse or recycle certain components from these assets.
• Green handling – ensuring that the assets are not just dumped anywhere but disposed of according to law and compliance set by regulators to avoid any unwanted problems in the future.

And this is where Lenovo’s asset recovery service comes in. Be it any brand from any manufacturer, Varinderjit pointed out that all these concerns by businesses are addressed by Lenovo when handling these assets. This includes using shredders for destroying sensitive devices which complies with US DoD standards as well as HDD degaussing whereby a strong magnetic field is used to destroy magnetic patterns in HDDs and magnetic tapes.

“Desktop and notebooks are the devices which companies dispose of most often. These are more in quantity compared to servers and other devices. Apart from ensuring all data is erased, businesses also want the best value because, at the end of the day, they would like some funds in return to purchase newer products. The value depends on the condition and content of the product as well as what components can be salvaged from a device,” explained Varinderjit.

Lenovo also works with various agents and wholesalers in ensuring guaranteed fair market value with set prices as well as use multiple channels and extensive buyer network to maximise asset value. They are also an official Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher. Their green handling is also compliant with all local, state, federal and international regulators.

A Sustainable Future

In 2018, Lenovo also began implementing the use of an innovative bio-based packaging made from bamboo and sugar cane fibre. The material is not only 100% biodegradable but also lighter than the previous packaging and its strength characteristics enable design improvements that reduce overall package size.

To date, Lenovo has eliminated 3,100 tons of packaging consumption by weight since 2008 and also transitioned the packaging for the ThinkPad series to 100% biodegradable or recycled cushioning materials. In 2020, Lenovo was recognised for leadership in the corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programs by global environmental non-profit CDP (formally the Carbon Disclosure Project), securing a place on its prestigious ‘A List’ for the first time for the company’s actions in tackling climate change.

In addition to the above, Lenovo introduced Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) to the PC industry, which is coherent with the circular economy trend and has pioneered a new way for organisations to procure their end-user technology. Lenovo DaaS is a usage model in which the consumer pays to use the device of their choice as they need it and has the option of pausing or returning the device when it is not in use.

“When the device reaches the end of its service life, Lenovo will collect the device, wipe it clean of the customer’s data, and recycle or repurpose it. Customers only pay for what they use, avoiding the heavy capital outlays of the ownership model, as well as escaping the burden and cost of disposal,” added Varinderjit.

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