Earth Day 2024: Responsible Recycling

Our economy craves critical metals or “technical nutrients” to build the carbon-fighting solar panels and electric cars we need, and the work-and-lifestyle-sustaining electronics we want and enjoy.

“Technical nutrients” are essential substances that spur growth, including economic growth, if used in the right way. Sustainability book Cradle to Cradle defines a “technical nutrient” as non-biological, which is something that doesn’t biodegrade safely into nature and should be used, reused and never wasted in our industrial economy.

Like many businesses, ours requires use of some technical nutrients to deliver data and voice traffic here in Hawai‘i and across the world. As we expand our statewide fiber network by over-building our existing copper network with greener fiber, we are doing our part to recycle technical nutrients including IT products and cables.

Leading up to Earth Day on April 22, 2024, we’ll be highlighting our responsible recycling practices with videos and posts about:

• Our partnerships reclaiming critical metals from our network by recovering and recycling telecom cables – 10.4 million pounds so far!
  
  
• Our reclamation of retired undersea cable system, resulting in the recovery and recycling of 1,164 kilometers of cable from the sea floor in 2023.
  
  
• Our process for recycling 100% of our electronic waste (e-waste) into next-generation IT products via Responsible Recycling (R2) certified partners – 595,600+ pounds in 2023!

We hope this inspires you to:

• Go green with our Fioptics internet If you can, get off copper-based service and let us recycle it. Check out my blog: Fiber is greener!
  
  
• Turn your e-waste into “nutrients” for the economy by bringing your old electronics to our E-waste Recycling Drive on Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to noon at our Moanalua Baseyard (1021 Kikowaena Place):