Sprint pushing for a greener handset portfolio

When Sprint (NYSE:S) CEO Dan Hesse testified today before the U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee on Communications, Technology and Internet on sustainability in telecom, he came armed not just with words, but several new initiatives aimed at making Sprint one of the greenest operators in the market. He announced a new set of environmentally friendly standards Sprint will impose on its handset and device vendors and revealed a new phone buyback program that offers a financial incentive for customers to turn in their old devices rather than just toss them in the trash.

The new green design criteria requires vendors to make devices from sustainable non-hazardous materials, be highly energy efficient—even self charging--use less wasteful packaging and make that packaging more environmentally friendly. What’s more Sprint wants its new devices to be compatible with interoperable accessories, which can be reused from handset to handset, and for all devices themselves to be fully and easily recyclable.

“Moving forward, every handset vendor who manufactures handsets to operate on Sprint's networks must produce handsets that meet or exceed Sprint's new green design criteria and specifications,” Hesse said. “Working in partnership with our handset manufacturers, Sprint has developed an industry-first environmental 'scorecard' to bolster progress toward Sprint's green design specifications. The criteria in the scorecard better enable Sprint and our vendors to gauge the degree to which each handset manufactured complies with our environmental standards.”

Hesse didn’t offer specifics as to when the full force of the criteria will go into effect, but he said that Sprint is already working with many of its primary handset suppliers—Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola (NYSE:MOT) HTC, Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) and Sanyo among them—on compliance with the new green standards.

The new buyback program is actually an extension of a program Sprint already has in place and which achieved a 40% recycle or reuse rate of old devices in 2009. Hesse, however, said Sprint’s overall goal is to reach a 90% recycle and reuse rate, and to accomplish that Sprint had to offer a financial temptation for its customers. Depending on the device Sprint will offer a $5 to $300 rebate on its customers’ bills if they return an old device at one of its retail stores—even if the device came from another operator. A BlackBerry Bold, for instance, could net a subscriber $161, while an LG Env2 would return $36. The exact amount is determined by the make, model and age of the device with higher prices going to phones that could be refurbished or reused for parts.

Sprint’s decision to introduce financial compensation was influenced by a recent ABI Research survey that found 98% of 1000 respondents would be willing to recycle their phones if there was something in it for them—whether it was cash, store credit or a tax deduction. The result of such compensation largely not being available to is that about 90% of old devices go unrecycled every year, winding up in landfills or in desk drawers, producing 65,000 tons of electronic waste, according to numbers Hesse cited from the Environmental Protection Agency.

“While 40% to 50% of Americans recycle paper and other common materials regularly, the truth about e-cycling, which is the reuse or recycling of electronics, is that many U.S. consumers don't,” Hesse said in his Congressional testimony. “The implication of low e-cycling rates is significant. Many of these electronics contain valuable metals--such as gold and silver that could be recycled into jewelry, electronics, lawn furniture, car parts, shingles, plastic containers and more.”