Waste Management-Wistron ESG

Waste Management

Wistron is committed to avoid banned substances or materials and actively promotes waste reduction, recycling, and reuse. Any materials and suppliers we work with are rigorously and carefully screened, and we continue to pursue technical improvement or eco-friendly materials. We abide by environmental and customer regulations related to our activities, products, and services to attain, or even exceed set goals. Waste management at Wistron consists of "consistent waste classification and reduction" and "recycling and reuse." We comprehensively evaluate and check the generation and flow of waste and toxic substances through sound waste and hazardous substance management, minimizing waste as much as possible through recycling. Strong management over waste and hazardous substances can help reduce the impact and burden on the environment, but also enable Wistron to create niches in business operations with improved material usage and lowered operating costs, helping us achieve sustainability.

Wistron identifies waste types and reduction opportunities through management processes such as source reduction, recycling, and reuse, ensuring waste is reasonably recycled, utilized, and disposed of, thereby reducing its environmental impact. This not only minimizes environmental impact and burden but also reduces operational costs by improving material utilization, creating a competitive edge that benefits the company's sustainable operations.

Waste Identification: Evaluate the production process, analyze the waste generation points at each step, and determine waste disposal methods according to regulatory requirements.
Reuse, Recycling, and Reutilization: Through the identification process, find links where waste can be reduced, establish a comprehensive recycling system, and ensure waste can be effectively recycled and reused. Explore avenues for waste reutilization, such as using waste materials in other production processes or developing new products.
Monitoring and Evaluation: Continuously monitor and collect data on waste generation and treatment. Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of waste reduction measures to identify further improvement opportunities.

Investment in innovation or R&D to minimize waste

Product Design
Wistron is dedicated to the research and development, design, manufacturing, and service of its products. Sustainable product design and development are based on the concept of the life cycle, considering aspects from raw material acquisition, manufacturing, distribution, product use, to waste recycling. This approach aims to reduce the environmental impact of products, create sustainable value, ensure the sustainable use of resources, and establish a green circular sustainable business model. During the product design and development phase, guidelines and review procedures for green product design are implemented, considering waste disposal and recycling from the design stage to minimize the impact on people and the environment after the product's disposal.

Product Manufacturing - End-of-Life Disposal
The ESG organization at manufacturing plants promotes waste reduction and management within the maunfacturing plant:

Collaborate with waste treatment providers, prioritizing those that meet zero landfill requirements to increase waste recycling or reuse, thereby improving conversion rates.
Evaluation and implementation of reduction technologies:

Collaborate with plant R&D personnel to assess opportunities for source reduction. For example, optimizing sheet material configurations to minimize scrap.

Actively cooperate with suppliers to adjust raw material packaging specifications or methods, reducing the use of raw material packaging.

Amount of Waste Generated

Unit: tons

		2020	2021	2022	2023
Non-hazardous	a. Reuse	215.67	238.07	232.67	491.15
	b. Recycle	37,613.77	35,533.31	35,058.21	27,818.53
	c. Replaced with alternative raw materials	-	-	-	-
	d. Landfill	373.00	562.67	1,506.32	1,127.89
	e. Incinerate (with energy recovery)	272.76	1,670.37	2,300.53	1,154.75
	f. Incinerate (without energy recovery)	2,666.89	255.31	-	32.00
Subtotal		41,142.08	38,259.73	39,097.73	30,624.32
Hazardous	g. Temporary storage	-	-	-	-
	h. Transported to external treatment facilities_Recycle	-	-	-	669.17
	i. Transported to external treatment facilities	1,001.90	1,043.50	1,205.56	533.92
Subtotal		1,001.90	1,043.50	1,205.56	1,203.09
Total	Total waste generated (d.+e.+f.+g.+i.)	4,314.55	3,531.85	5,012.41	2,848.56
Total	Total waste recycled/ reused (a.+b.+c.+h.)	37,829.43	35,771.38	35,290.88	28,978.85

Waste reduction

To reduce waste more effectively, Wistron shifted the waste treatment target to "waste intensity reduction" starting from 2021. Using 2018 as the base year, we strive to reduce waste generation intensity (waste generation per unit revenue) by 2% each year – which means a 8% reduction by 2024, a 20% reduction by 2030, and a 30% reduction by 2035.

Through Wistron's waste management process, waste reduction and classification actions are divided into three main categories: reuse, recycling, and repurposing. This approach enhances the waste conversion rate and reduces landfill:

Reuse(on-site): Identify opportunities for waste reuse, actively collaborate with suppliers, and promote the reuse of original packaging materials. For example: reusing pallets within the factory and reusing plastic and cardboard boxes.
Recycling: Actively negotiate with waste disposal contractors to increase the recycling rate of waste. For example: plastics, waste cardboard, food waste, etc.
Reuse(off-site): Utilize waste materials to manufacture other products.

Through these three major actions, combined with regular environmental education and advocacy, and in conjunction with the UL2799 Zero Waste to Landfill certification planning and actions, Wistron reduced waste by 1,116 tons in 2023. Compared to the baseline year of 2018, the waste intensity decreased by 6.4%, achieving two platinum-level and one gold-level Zero Waste to Landfill certifications.

International Certification Promotion - Zero Waste to Landfill

Wistron has introduced the UL 2799 waste zero landfill certification mechanism in all major manufacturing plants since 2022. Our widespread adoption of UL 2799 aims to identify waste reduction plans and optimize resource utilization to achieve a sustainable resource cycle. At Wistron, we continue to expand our zero-waste mission, sharing our experiences in zero landfill waste certification with overseas plants to realize our commitment to sustainable management.

Waste Recycling Rate

Unit: %

		2020	2021	2022	2023
Non-hazardous	Reuse	0.5	0.6	0.6	1.5
	Recycle	89.3	90.4	87.0	87.4
	Replaced with alternative raw materials	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Incinerate (with energy recovery)	0.6	4.3	5.7	3.6
Hazardous	Recycle	-	-	-	2.1
Total		90.4	95.3	93.3	94.7

Waste Management Performance indicators

Performance Indicators	Unit	2020	2021	2022	2023
Waste per unit-revenue	kilotons of waste output/ NT$ 1B	0.064	0.061	0.059	0.048
Non-hazardous waste output per unit-revenue	kilotons of waste output/ NT$ 1B	0.063	0.059	0.057	0.046
Hazardous waste output per unit-revenue	kilotons of waste output/ NT$ 1B	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.002

Note: The waste intensity in 2018 was 0.051 kilotons / NT$ 1B.

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