Korea-based ITAD giant SK Tes processed more than 100,000 metric tons of IT assets last year, the company reported in its newly released 2023 sustainability report.
With a goal of repurposing 1 million metric tons of assets by 2030, the company increased the number of units destined for reuse by 67% on the year to almost 6 million units, according to the report. That totaled 17,600 metric tons of assets reused.
However, the proportion of reuse volumes to overall metric tons processed fell to 17.6%, much lower than the 33% reported in the previous year. The company cited two factors for the decrease: large numbers of desktops, monitors, refrigerators and washing machines reused in 2022, and an increase in sales for the lighter weight items including laptops, tablets and server units.
Of the 2.5 million assets sold for reuse, 23% were laptops, 26% was audio/video equipment, and 13% were monitors and televisions. Other major categories included monitors/televisions (13%) and desktops/workstations (11%).
The company also reported that more than 80% of its IT and battery lifecycle management sites are ISO 14001 certified, with a goal of 100% by 2025. “Action plans are in place to obtain certification at our remaining locations in France and Rotterdam,” the report said.
Looking ahead, new lithium-ion battery recycling plants in Australia, Hungary and Thailand are expected to start up in late 2024 and 2025, the company said in the report.
As for the company’s own residuals, volumes sent to landfill and incineration increased significantly to 2,536 metric tons from 583 in 2022. As a result, SK Tes’s internal reuse, recycling and recovery rate fell to 97.3%.
“To address this, we have introduced training and incentivisation programmes at our operating sites to encourage business unit leaders to more stringently monitor the waste they generate, and consider specific reduction programmes and higher recovery disposal routes that will help us to meet our zero waste to landfill targets,” the report said.
In addition, “as sites develop their climate transition plans and tackle Scope 3 emissions, there will be a greater emphasis to reduce waste generation and improve recycling rates through more value added, higher recovery methods of disposal,” the company wrote.
In the year, SK Tes also developed a carbon footprint calculator, using product lifecycle analysis and specific site-level data on emissions, resource recovery, toxicity, energy, waste, and transport and logistics rather than on broad estimates of emissions, according to the report.
