Symbol for the Marking of Electrical and Electronic Equipment

The WEEE Directive requires producers to mark electrical and electronic equipment put on the market after August 13, 2005 with a ‘crossed-out wheeled bin’ symbol. This is for reminding consumers not to dispose of WEEE as unsorted municipal waste and to collect such WEEE separately. Please check local regulations for disposal of electronic products.

In 2024, Acer has recycled a total of 14,707 tonnes of electronic products, with the recycling rate of 14.6% in Asia, Americas and Europe regions.

The Acer Group continues to be committed to working for sustainable lifestyles and a sustainable environment. To this end, we pursue the recycling of limited resources and good mechanisms for recycling waste in hopes of creating new value for our products. We actively support a variety of measures promoting recycling around the world, along with Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR), and are committed to working with stakeholders including governments, consumers, and channels/retailers to shoulder the responsibility for recycling and managing electronic waste. Around the world, Acer follows local government standards for various electronic product recycling programs and provides convenient recycling methods for consumers to improve the efficiency of waste recycling in the hope of contributing to resource sustainability.

We continue to seek opportunities to collaborate with research institutions and industry associations to increase the collection of WEEE and to utilize recycled materials in fostering a more sustainable circular economy. By raising awareness of WEEE-related information through our local websites in each country, Project Humanity program within our company, Earthion program cooperating with suppliers, providing on-site advisory services, and conducting marketing campaigns to employees, suppliers, customers, and end users, we aim to reduce and properly manage e-waste, while ensuring it is correctly handled by our recycling partners. Through these efforts, to achieve the WEEE recycling rate to 15% by the end of 2025 and minimizing potential environmental impacts. 

In cooperation with government-approved recycling partners or those certified by third-party organizations to recognized e-waste recycling standards including R2, E-Stewards, EN 50625 Series, WEEELABEX or equivalent standards in each country or region, we collected waste electrical and electronic equipment through take-back programs across Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The collected products and materials are reused, resold, or recycled where possible, while any non-reusable or non-recyclable portions are responsibly disposed of or landfilled by our recycling partners. By collecting each collected, reused, resold, or recycled rate from local authority or recycling partners, we concluded that Acer collected a total of 14,707 tonnes of electronic products through our recycling partners, with the rate of 14.6% in Asia, Americas and Europe regions in 2024. For detailed WEEE recycling figures from 2021 to 2024, please refer to the table below.        

Taiwan

Recycling of waste IT products in Taiwan is handled through a publicly managed and operated system. Operators receive fees from the Resource Recycling Management Fund based on annual operation volumes and recycling clearance and disposal rates. The Recycling Fund Management Board under the Resource Circulation Administration (RECA) of the Ministry of Environment, is in charge of determining recyclables, issuing treatment subsidies, auditing and verifying treatment volumes, and managing recyclers’ treatment and administrative operations. Taiwan offers a wide spectrum of waste IT product recycling channels, able to utilize clean-up teams, second-hand goods operators, resource recycling organizations, and recycling locations established at IT product retail sales sites. Acer coordinates efforts with Taiwan' recycling system by not only making annual payments to the Resource Recycling Management Fund, but also participating in public hearings on recycling, clearance and treatment fee rates to better understand Resource Recycling Management Fund operations and provide suggestions on recycling, clearance and treatment fee rate adjustments. For information about resource recycling in Taiwan, please refer to the website of Resource Circulation Administration Ministry of Environment.          

In compliance with environmental regulations announced by the Ministry of Environment, we take responsibility for the recycling of discarded items, including computers and monitors. We also offer a brand-agnostic consumer electronics recycling service through our service centers across Taiwan. In collaboration with professional recyclers, we sort and refine lithium batteries to be reused as raw materials for new products, thereby reducing the extraction of upstream raw materials. In 2024, including the recycling efforts of our partners, we recycled a total of 1.1 tons of waste batteries and approximately 2,000 consumer electronic products of various brands. The profits from these activities were donated to the Taipei Orphan Welfare Foundation, amounting to a total of NT$ 100,000.

Japan

Acer continues to work with Japan’s PC3R promotion Association computer recycling organization, enabling consumers to register items for recycling online or by email and then send them in by mail. The Association also organizes for the reuse of any products collected that can still produce cyclical value. In Japan, Acer has set up PC Recycling Centers in hopes of encouraging customers to recycle long-used products and upgrade to newer products still in their usable lives. At the same time, this project also ensures that customers’ information security is protected.    

 

Australia

In Australian electronic waste is managed under the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) which is overseen by the Australian Federal Government. The NTCRS provides the framework on how the recycling of televisions, computers, printers, computer parts and peripheral products, are recycled, under Federal Laws. The objectives of NTCRS are to reduce waste that ends up in landfill, increase recycling rates and provide convenient access to recycling services for all Australians, households, and businesses throughout Australia. Acer collaborates with an approved NTCRS provider, NYCRS Ecycle Solutions, to achieve our commitments to the recycling of our e-waste.
 

Pan-America

Acer offers various regulatory and voluntary end-of-life electronics recycling channels in Pan America to ensure its household, education and commercial customers have convenient and environmentally responsible options for recycling their end-of-life products.

Battery recycling 

Acer operates recycling programs for the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries contained in mobile electronic products. These programs are important to Acer due to the demand for cobalt in the manufacture of lithiumion batteries and also the child labor risk associated with the mining of raw cobalt. By increasing the recycling of batteries, we contribute the preservation of the natural resources and minimize the risk of child labor in the supply chain. In 2024, Acer continued to collect and recycle nearly 3,825 kilograms of batteries through the Call2Recycle program in the United States and Canada, as well as through internal customer service repair channels, which represents a 42% increase over the previous year.

Packaging material recycling 

In 2024, most provinces in Canada have implemented or transitioned to new extended producer responsibility programs for packaging materials and paper products. Acer currently works with Circular Materials as its producer responsibility organization (PRO) to plan, coordinate and execute Acer's packaging recycling programs on its behalf. Acer will select a PRO and begin its packaging and paper products recycling in the United States beginning in 2025.

Acer America continues to require that all recycling schemes under its control ensure appropriate disposal and management of end-of-life electronics devices, components and materials, as well as safeguarding customer data through the implementation of data destruction procedures. Acer America requires that all contracted suppliers and second tier suppliers comply with Acer waste disposal standards for the management of end-of-life products and still has a strict requirement for its recycling vendors to maintain either the Responsible Recycling (R2) or eStewards standards certifications. Acer also continued its recycling vendor auditing program to verify vendor practices and to ensure downstream processors are held accountable as well. For more information on Acer America's recycling program, please visit Acer America's recycling website.