"Why does it take HP so much time to start a pan-India takeback service for all its customers, given that it had now had two years' of experiment and learning?" asked Abhishek Pratap, toxics campaigner, Greenpeace. "Is it because the company does not want e-waste legislation embracing IPR in India?"
According to Greenpeace, HP's takeback service in India covers only its corporate, big institutional customers, leaving a vast number of individual users without the service. As per the 'takeback blues' study, even its corporate customer takeback service is not working properly. HP in India says that the brand will start a takeback service for individual customers, but only after it learns from the ongoing recycling process and system experiments, going on for past two years. What the company does not explain is why HP is not able to formulate a robust takeback service for all its customers even as the company offers takeback service for all its customers in Europe, US and other developed nations.
Greenpeace further adds the brand (globally) supports the principle IPR, and even actively lobbies in Europe and the US for IPR legislation, but not so in India. The position of the brand on support and lobby for legislation in India is not clear as the company has so far shied away from making any commitment publicly.
"It is imperative that HP, being the market leader in the computer segment in India leads the pack by calling for legislation and by lobbying within the electronics sector and the government to make e-waste legislation in India a reality," said Pratap. "The brand must, without further delay, start voluntary, free takeback service for all its customers."
Takeback services which attribute the costs of recycling to each individual producer will encourage producers to phase out the use of toxic substances in their products at the design stage, thus allowing for safer recycling and reduced end of life costs for the companies. |
