Period of implementation of the project: 

2019 – ongoing

Challenge: 

As technologies change at a  great speed, product life cycles become shorter. Devices are becoming redundant  each year. The amount of e-waste is growing rapidly and it’s a significant  environmental issue. E-wastes at homes  contain hazardous  substances that may pose considerable environmental and health  risks, especially if treated inadequately. While we have a well-run waste  management system at Vodafone Turkey,  we wanted to draw attention to e-waste issue, because e-waste has the second biggest impact on the environment after energy.  Also, e-waste is a complicated topic to explain to people. No one knows what to do  with them. 

Solution: 

In line with our Planet targets,we developed Waste to Code sustainability project to raise awareness and contribute to solving e-waste issues. In June 2019, we started to collect e-waste from our employees brought from their homes. Then  we recycled them through a licensed  company Akademi Çevre. They paid the scrap value to us, and we donated this amount to Vodafone Foundation to open a  coding class for children who don’t have any opportunity to access the digital world. In the  second phase, we expanded the project to  our dealers and Vodafone Business Digitalization Truck. Then, we invited our  ecosystem, business partners and corporate  customers to the project. 21 business  partners become our project partners. We  supply them e-waste boxes and communication materials from videos to digital contents which explain e-waste issues.  Our partners’ employees bring their e-wastes to support our project. Thus, they  don’t only support the creation of coding classes, but also gain awareness on  recycling and e-waste. We carried out an effective communications campaign to overcome the lack of knowledge on e-waste.  We shot short videos starring our CEO and  our employees to show different types of e waste and how to recycle them. 

Results: 

We received many emails from our employees asking us what e-waste was, if they could bring a television, an electronic  scale or a vacuum cleaner. Employees who  join the project become the agents of change. We collected and recycled 2 tons of  e-waste so far. 7 coding classes were  opened around Turkey (Mardin, Samsun, Adana, Uşak, Gaziantep, Bingöl, Çanakkale). Today 21 business partners  and their 13.800 employees collect e-waste  to recycle. People are so motivated to recycle and implement sustainable solutions  because this supports environment and children’s digital skills. We raised people’s  awareness of recycling and environmental  consciousness, they became role models for  each other.

Category: Planet

Company: Vodafone Turkey

About the company:

A part of the Vodafone Group, which operates as one of the world’s leading technology communications providers, Vodafone Turkey offers a range of telecommunications technologies including fixed, mobile and content services to individuals and enterprises in line with its vision of “building a digital future for everyone”.

Sustainable Development Goals