Sunway’s eWaste campaign gets you thinking green

The widespread use of electronic gadgets and gear without a corresponding channel developed for their proper disposal is an issue that the Sunway Education Group (SE Group) is concerned with. As its IT Services department has pressed forward to deploy better technology to all the Sunway education institutions, they are also conscious of the dumping of used electronic items (eWaste).

Staff member placing his e-waste into the e-waste bin on Sunway campus

In March 2012, Sunway Education Group initiated a group-wide eWaste handling that is certified by the DOE. Notwithstanding the efforts, IT Services together with Health & Safety and Facility departments of Sunway extended this eWaste initiative to allow staff and students to dispose of their personal unwanted items conveniently at their work place. The recently launched campaign,“GreenThink! eWaste Disposal” is a convenient channel for the Sunway education community to discard their home e-waste. The name is a twist of the original name mooted which was “Think Green”. The organisors thought “GreenThink!” was different and more easily recalled.

eWaste collection bins have been deployed at strategic locations around Sunway campus. The three categories of eWaste that can be disposed are hand phones, electronic batteries, chargers, electronic boards and other electronic components. The eWaste bins will be cleared on the last Friday of every quarter and the items will be properly recycled or disposed of by DOE-certified centres. Special arrangements can be made for collection of bigger items for example old PCs, printers, audio players and TVs.

There is also an eWaste bin for collection of fluorescent lights of all types, may it be tubes or bulbs, energy-saving or incandescent.

Director of IT Services, Sunway Education Group Tony Lee, said, “Both the fluorescent lights and eWaste bins are available at two GreenThink! areas. One is located at our foyer, next to the Security Office and the other at our cafeteria, near the Energy Hub”.

“It takes only little effort to participate in our SEG “GreenThink! eWaste Disposal” campaign. Let’s all take responsibility together to protect our environment,” added Lee.

The Sunway Education Group has addressed the 3Rs “Reuse, Reduce, Recycle” environmental issue by recycling paper, glass, plastic and aluminium cans consistently since 2002, implemented the ‘Scrap-the-Styro’ campaign in 2010 and ‘Pay for Your Plastic Bag’ campaign in 2011.