Ericsson – 20 years of Ericsson Product e-waste management – Stemming the tide of telecom e-waste

E-waste is still one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world. In 2022, an estimated 62
million tons of e-waste were produced globally. Only 22.3% was documented as formally
collected and recycled.

Ericsson launched its Product Take-back programme in 2005. This offers customers a free
collection and recycling service for end-of-life telecom equipment including Ericsson and non-Ericsson
material. The programme is also used to manage e-waste generated by Ericsson’s internal
operations. The recycling is done by Ericsson’s third-party suppliers, who have global coverage
and obtain the required licenses to ensure legal compliance and sound environmental e-waste
treatment. Ericsson only uses global recognised recyclers with proven high recycling rate and
latest standard.

Over the past 20 years Ericsson has collected and recycled 165,000 metric tons of e-waste
globally. The e-waste has primarily been collected from 307 operators but also from its
internal operations.

Ericsson’s high standards for recycling have resulted in more than 95% of material recycled from
the collected volumes over the past 20 years, reaching 97% in its last 2024 report. The programme
has other environmental benefits, such as mitigating obsolete hardware ending up
in uncontrolled landfills and business benefits such fulfilling high standards for data protection keeping sensitive information safe.