Press release - November 19, 2005
BANGALORE, India — Nearly ten weeks after Greenpeace activists first exhorted WIPRO to 'Apply Thought', WIPRO has responded to the challenge and taken initial steps towards reducing the burden of their electronic waste on the planet. At a meeting held at the company's headquarters earlier today, senior WIPRO officials assured Greenpeace campaigners that they would present a road-map within six months for clean production, and will concurrently set up systems to ensure take-back of their e-waste.
Greenpeace activists urge Wipro to apply thought.
On 5th September 2005, Greenpeace activists had delivered nearly
500 kilos of WIPRO's electronic waste, sourced from Indian
recycling yards, to the corporate headquarters of WIPRO in
Bangalore, to highlight the growing menace of dangerous chemicals
being released to the environment while recycling electronic
waste.
"Greenpeace presented WIPRO a list of the OSPAR + chemicals
(1),reiterating that the company must phase these out of their
products completely," said Ramapati Kumar, Toxics Campaigner,
Greenpeace India, "Although their present commitment lies at the
very baseline of standards that manufacturers need to comply with,
it is certainly a step in the right direction. We hope that WIPRO
will soon be able to take a position of pride alongside world
majors like LG, Samsung and Sony, by committing to eliminate the
use of hazardous chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and
brominated flame retardants (BFRs), in their products and
substitute them with safer alternatives(2). "
In response to Greenpeace' demand that WIPRO set in place a
system to take back their end-of-life products, WIPRO stated that
it has raised this issue, as well as that of clean production, at
the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology
(MAIT).
In the meantime, WIPRO has undertaken to provide detailed
information to customers on the impacts of end-of-life computers,
along with guidelines for sending such products only to authorized
recyclers. The company has also revised its policy as demanded by
Greenpeace, and will now agree to take back its computers
(including a commercial buy-back scheme) from customers.
For further information:
Ramapati Kumar, Toxics
Campaigner, Greenpeace India
+91 98455 35414; 
Namrata Chowdhary,
Media Officer, Greenpeace India
+91 98108 50092; 
See our Ewaste campaign pages
Footnote 1: The list of chemicals mentioned in the OSPAR
(Oslo - Paris) agreement, with a vision to 'move towards the target
of cessation of discharges, emissions and losses of hazardous
substances by the year 2020'
Footnote 2:
International companies have already researched innovative
substitutes for Brominated Flame Retardants: For example Sony uses
an inorganic flame-retardant made from vegetable-based plastic
(UL94 V-2)
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Environment/news/2004/01.html for more
info.