StarHub’s RENEW scheme recycled 780 tonnes of e-waste before handing off to a national programme

In 2012, StarHub launched RENEW (Recycling the Nation’s Electronic Waste), a nationwide e-waste recycling programme run in partnership with recycler TES and logistics partner DHL Express, and supported by the National Environment Agency (NEA). At its peak, RENEW placed collection bins at more than 380 locations across Singapore, letting members of the public drop off old electronics for responsible recycling at no cost.

Over its nine years of operation, StarHub says RENEW was the largest company-led voluntary e-waste recycling effort in Singapore, recycling more than 780 tonnes of e-waste and avoiding an estimated 850 tonnes of carbon emissions in the process.

StarHub ended RENEW in mid-2021, timing the wind-down to coincide with NEA’s new mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for e-waste, which shifted responsibility for e-waste collection onto a nationally regulated system rather than individual corporate programmes. StarHub still keeps an e-waste collection point at its Tampines Mall store in support of the EPR scheme. The RENEW case is a useful example of a corporate CSR programme designed, from the outset, to eventually be superseded by public policy rather than to run indefinitely.