Sprint Acknowledged as Industry Leader in Electronics Recycling by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Sprint among four companies to receive the EPA’s first Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Electronics Challenge Champion Award, marking Sprint’s 3^rd EPA Award in 2014

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), September 24, 2014 – 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.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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, news, filings) 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.

PR Archives: Latest, By Company, By Date