Canon Middle East, the leading provider of imaging and IT solutions, has signed a partnership agreement with EnviroServe, the leading environmental waste managers, to tackle e-waste in the region.

The programme will ensure the proper destruction and recycling of ‘end of life’ Canon consumer electronic products and service parts across the region through the company’s extensive network of Channel partners.

“Our partnership with EnviroServe is part of our ongoing environmental commitment and reiterates our efforts to maximise resource efficiency and contribute to a society that practices sustainable development,” said Bertil Widmark, managing director, Canon Middle East.

As part of this agreement, EnviroServe’s e-waste recycling division ‘EnviroFone’ will facilitate the collection of ‘end of life’ electronic products, and service parts before segregating the materials into the different components and sending to recyclers where they will be melted, crushed and treated into raw materials for re-use.

“Because there is little awareness in the Middle East about how toxic e-waste elements like batteries and TV screens affect our environment, there is no system in place to responsibly recycle e-waste. Our main goal is to create awareness as well as develop and sustain a sense of environmental responsibility in our Arab communities and within the companies and businesses that operate in this region,” explained Mariam Hanafy, EnviroFone Division manager.

“We have an impressive track record of recycling worldwide, to date the cumulative weight of toner cartridges collected by Canon since 1990 exceeds 190,000 tons globally,” added Bertil Widmark.

By 2010, Canon aims to reduce its carbon emissions to 50 per cent of the output for the same work in 2000.-TradeArabia News Service