Turning e-waste around

Brother Philippines offers opportunity for savings from e-waste—and a way to deal with unwanted electronics the right way

In the photo: Mr. Glenn Hocson the President of Brother Philippines.

It’s not uncommon for Filipino households to have one or two printers, copiers, scanners collecting dust from misuse. They might have upgraded to better models, found repair costs too expensive for a malfunctioning machine, or have no further use for the items. More often than not, these households found it too inconvenient to dispose of the machines—too bulky to throw out with the trash and virtually nowhere to pass them over for recycling.

E-waste disposal can be a challenge—especially since the components within machines cannot be simply categorized to non-recyclables or biodegradable. At some point, we need e-waste disposal experts to come in and help.

Finding an opportunity to provide a little help for Filipino households with their e-waste dilemma, Brother Philippines initiated regular trade-in promotions, currently dubbed the “Switch to Tank” promotion, encouraging customers to use the genuine Brother Ink Refills only.

“The mechanics we’ve always had are very simple,” said Glenn Hocson, Brother Philippines President. “We ask customers to bring in their unwanted printers, copiers, fax machines, and scanners to select location, which will garner them discounts for their next printing equipment. Not only was this promotion a good opportunity for us to allow customers to try and purchase our products for less, but also for them to properly dispose their unused machines sitting around in their homes.”

For several years now, trading in machines for a Brother model of their choice enabled customers to experience all the practical yet impressive features of these products for themselves. But what happens to the machines that Brother Philippines collect?

“The trade-in events are a good way to boost sales,” shared Mr. Hocson. “But at some point, we have to think about the proper disposal of the machines brought to us. Obviously, we can’t store these in our own facilities or just throw everything out for the garbagemen to collect. So, we worked with a local e-waste, DENR-accredited recycling company, HMR Philippines, to help us responsibly deal with the machines our customers traded.”

HMR Philippines takes the traded machines from Brother Philippines, and break each machine down to its individual parts. Anything that can be reused safely (without potential risk of harm) will be saved for recycling, and the residual materials will be passed on for final treatment with another service provider.

“We made sure that our e-waste recycling partner will not just take the machines off our hands, but is also accredited in handling, transporting, and actually disposing the e-waste properly,” added Mr. Hocson“. It’s a small step toward becoming fully green, but along with our push for refill-tank printer systems to reduce waste from consumables like cartridges, we hope to contribute to efforts to help the environment.”

To learn more about the brand and its products, visit the Brother Philippines website at www.brother.com.ph, like its Facebook page (facebook.com/BROTHERatyourside), and follow @BROTHERPhils on Twitter and @BrotherPhils on Instagram.