We are careful with resources – and likewise with waste. Waste management throughout our entire Group is organized consistently in line with the International Waste Management Framework. On the basis of this framework, our national companies define their own measurable targets and monitor progress toward those targets. This enables them to flexibly comply with general conditions specific to each country and company.
We strive to avoid creating waste wherever possible and to recycle as much as possible of the waste we do produce. We are pursuing a range of approaches in this context to ensure that we manage electric waste in a controlled manner and avoid it ending up in landfills, where waste that is not properly disposed of poses a risk of contamination to soil and watercourses. In 2021, our European national companies defined the following common aim: to ensure, by 2024, that no electronic waste they produce, and no returned devices, such as smartphones, routers and laptops, wind up in landfills – and that such waste and devices are properly recycled as they would be in Germany. We achieved this goal by the end of 2022 and are planning to roll out implementation to T-Mobile US and T-Systems in future. Additionally, we are constantly working to refine our Group-wide set of performance indicators for waste management, and we now also collect data on recycling of technology and hazardous waste as well as monitoring quantities of waste produced.
Recovered copper cables
Copper cables were the main component of telephone lines for decades. Our fiber-optic build-out means that this type of cable is now gradually being replaced. In 2016, we therefore introduced a relevant Group-wide, mandatory policy. It provides a guideline to our national companies when it comes to the recycling and disposal of legacy cables and also contains requirements for copper cable recycling.
In 2022, Deutsche Telekom removed around 1 313 metric tons of copper cable from cable ducts in Germany alone. Certified waste disposal facilities process the cables in accordance with environmental standards, and up to 90 percent of the material is then recycled.
Our contribution to the SDGs
We are careful with resources – and likewise with waste. Waste management throughout our entire Group is organized consistently in line with the International Waste Management Framework. On the basis of this framework, our national companies define their own measurable targets and monitor progress toward those targets. This enables them to flexibly comply with general conditions specific to each country and company.
We strive to avoid creating waste wherever possible and to recycle as much as possible of the waste we do produce. We are pursuing a range of approaches in this context to ensure that we manage electric waste in a controlled manner and avoid it ending up in landfills, where waste that is not properly disposed of poses a risk of contamination to soil and watercourses. In 2021, our European national companies defined the following common aim: to ensure, by 2024, that no electronic waste they produce, and no returned devices, such as smartphones, routers and laptops, wind up in landfills – and that such waste and devices are properly recycled as they would be in Germany. We achieved this goal by the end of 2022 and are planning to roll out implementation to T-Mobile US and T-Systems in future. Additionally, we are constantly working to refine our Group-wide set of performance indicators for waste management, and we now also collect data on recycling of technology and hazardous waste as well as monitoring quantities of waste produced.
Recovered copper cables
Copper cables were the main component of telephone lines for decades. Our fiber-optic build-out means that this type of cable is now gradually being replaced. In 2016, we therefore introduced a relevant Group-wide, mandatory policy. It provides a guideline to our national companies when it comes to the recycling and disposal of legacy cables and also contains requirements for copper cable recycling.
In 2022, Deutsche Telekom removed around 1 313 metric tons of copper cable from cable ducts in Germany alone. Certified waste disposal facilities process the cables in accordance with environmental standards, and up to 90 percent of the material is then recycled.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)