Industry position on deposit schemes for small electronics

The government inquiry into a deposit system for small electronics is in its final phase and will report its findings by April 1. IT&Telekomföretagen, together with a number of members, has held a dialogue with the inquiry and clearly expressed the industry's views and proposals for measures instead of the establishment of a special national system as the only country in the EU. At today's meeting, the Council has decided on an industry position on the issue based on the inquiry's ideas that a system should initially focus on mobile phones.

The industry is fundamentally in favor of creating incentives for increased recycling in general and for the IT sector in particular. It is desirable to have a higher degree of recycling of mobile phones when their technical lifetime has been reached, but recycling is the last stage for a product, promoted reuse is of at least equal importance. Premature recycling leads to important years of circularity being lost. A deposit and/or premium system could thus risk going directly against the EU's environmental objectives and circularity ambition and disrupt the step before recycling.

- Several market players in our industry already have mobile phone take-back schemes with ever-increasing volumes. We see the need for better information to consumers on how to return old mobile phones and want to take our responsibility in this regard, but also contribute with better statistical data so that political decisions are made on well-founded information," says Magdalena Aspengren, Chair of the Sustainability Council.

The industry wants the politicians to wait for the work that is underway at EU level on the issue and instead of being the only country to establish a deposit and/or premium system that is costly and leads to a deterioration in Swedish competitiveness.

- The industry has already been subject to, among other things, a chemical tax, a tax that has created unnecessarily heavy administration and led to more expensive products for consumers. We see a great risk that a deposit or premium system will create obstacles to the good work that the industry is doing and wants to strengthen to increase circularity and recycling of, among other things, mobile phones. Unfortunately, it is not possible to deposit mobile phones or other data-carrying devices in the same way as cans. It requires completely different measures and we should wait for a European solution," says Frida Faxborn, Industrial Policy Expert at IT&Telecomföretagen.

Magdalena Aspengren Frida Faxborn

Chairman of the Sustainability Council IT&Telecom companies

Industry proposals

To contribute to a more accurate decision-making basis, a more circular and sustainable management and a safe recycling process, the industry proposes the following actions:

1. Industry requirements for points of sale (operators, electronics retailers, etc.)
   An industry requirement that all sellers of mobile phones are affiliated with approved and certified recycling partners and offer a take-back service for data carriers
2. Collecting better data to make the right interventions
   a. Stakeholders are required to record the number of mobile phones returned for reuse and recycling in a secure manner. This should be combined with a statutory annual reporting to the Swedish EPA
   b. Reuse operators on the Swedish market are required to provide data on the export of mobile phones for reuse in another country.
   c. Importers of mobile phones are required to distinguish and report how many mobile phones are distributed for use in Sweden.
3. Information and services to customers
   a. The Swedish EPA is instructed to carry out consumer-oriented campaigns in cooperation with the relevant industry organizations to increase knowledge and change behaviour.
   b. The industry is required to inform consumers that mobile phones have a value and how to return them.
   c. Retailers should commit at the point of purchase to inform consumers about return at the point of purchase.
   d. The industry should commit to ensure and implement an information campaign that recyclers handle data securely according to the GDPR and delete data according to a secured process and how to easily delete data on the device yourself.
   e. The industry commits to offer fixed price services for the management of data needed/wanted to be saved in a mobile phone (e.g. a user who does not know how to save their pictures).
   f. The industry commits to helping consumers by becoming even clearer on how to securely delete all data from a mobile device themselves. This process has been significantly simplified in recent years.
4. The industry commits to creating a generic take-back scheme for data-carrying devices in general (tablets, game consoles, computers, etc.)
   All of these have similar attributes to mobile phones i.e. contain sensitive data, may contain harmful chemicals and valuable raw materials (often significantly more by weight than in a mobile phone) and should be tracked in terms of volume sold and collected/recycled.
5. Customer support including assistance with erasure, reconditioning and repair.
   a. In order to contribute to extending the lifetime of mobile phones in use, but also to stimulate take-back, industry players will support the establishment of activities where users are given the opportunity to have their terminal checked/updated and, if necessary, repaired.
   b. This also includes actively supporting the EU "Right to repair" initiative as appropriate.