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

In 2012, StarHub launched RENEW, short for Recycling the Nation’s Electronic Waste, a nationwide e waste recycling programme run with recycler TES and logistics partner DHL Express, and supported by the National Environment Agency. RENEW placed collection bins at locations across Singapore, letting the public drop off old electronics for recycling at no cost.

Over 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 along the way.

StarHub ended RENEW in mid 2021, timing the wind down to coincide with NEA’s new mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for e waste, which moved 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. RENEW is a useful example of a Corporate Social Responsibility programme that was designed, from the start, to eventually be replaced by public policy rather than run indefinitely.