Network equipment e-waste and circularity
We seek to responsibly manage waste from our network equipment and business operations.
The telecommunications industry operations generate electronic waste (e-waste) from used electronic network equipment, such as radio antennae or decommissioned data servers. Vodafone is committed to minimising the generation of e-waste from our business operations as we continue to maintain and enhance our networks.
To reuse, resell or send for recycling 100% of our network equipment e-waste by 2025.
Progress
This year, we are proud to announce that we have achieved our 2025 goal:
100%
of our decommissioned network equipment is
now reused, resold or sent for recycling.
How we manage waste across our business and network
We know that e-waste from our networks can harm the environment if not disposed of properly. E-waste, which includes discarded electronic devices like computers, monitors, and mobile phones, contains toxic substances such as mercury and lead that can pose severe risks to human health and the ecosystem if they are not treated responsibly. That's why we're taking steps to adopt a more circular approach to managing our network equipment.
We're committed to working with suppliers who share our vision of creating a circular economy for network equipment. When we replace or upgrade our network infrastructure, we aim to source equipment with circular design features. For example, this year we modernised our network with a major capital expenditure project, where environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors were key in evaluating suppliers.
Whenever possible, we reuse or resell network equipment that we've decommissioned. We manage our network assets smartly to minimise the need to buy new equipment, extending the useful life of each asset and optimising opportunities for reuse. To support this, we've developed our Asset Marketplace, a platform that allows used network equipment from one of our operating companies to be reused by another or resold to ensure the equipment's lifetime is extended as much as possible. As the platform was successful, we worked with the industry assoication GSMA to scale this solution and start addressing e-waste with other companies.
If reuse or resale isn't possible, we responsibly recycle decommissioned network equipment. We've established processes to prevent network waste from ending up in landfills or incinerators and we partner with recyclers who maximise the recovery of materials from e-waste, ensuring that valuable materials within used network equipment are recovered as part of a circular economy.
Our circularity journey
Our journey towards achieving our goal has given us a better understanding of the complexities of the circular economy. So far, we've focused on making sure that non-hazardous waste is reused, resold, or sent for recycling by third-party waste management partners. This means that e-waste requiring specialist waste management processes, like batteries, has not been included in our current targets. Additionally, while we send non-hazardous end-of-life equipment to be recycled by our third-party waste management partners, it doesn't necessarily result in the recovery of all materials within our network equipment during the recycling process. So, even though we've reached an important milestone, we recognise there's much more work to do to build a fully circular system for network equipment and improve circularity for hazardous waste. Our next step is to consider our role in this transition and working with others across the e-waste management system, which will inform how we set our future targets.
We've also scrutinised our network waste data to measure our target to reuse, resell, or send for recycling 100% of our network equipment e-waste by 2025. Our investigations not only led to improvements in operational and data reporting processes, but also provided further insights into some of the barriers we continue to face when reusing and recycling electronic and electrical equipment. For example, the complexities of waste transfer regulations limit how much we can scale up global reuse of network equipment via our asset marketplace. Similarly, in some countries where we operate, limited capabilities in e-waste recycling at a national and industry level continue to limit the ultimate rate of material recovery from e-waste recycling. To address these barriers, we actively engage with some of our strategic suppliers to improve data insights into their e-waste management processes and deepen our understanding of how network waste is managed after it leaves our operations. These insights will shape the next stage of our journey as we strive to continuously improve the quality of our network waste equipment data and influence action beyond our operations, working with others in the electronics value chain, towards a more circular system for network equipment.
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