Hewlett-Packard Singapore would like to thank Ms Khoo for her feedback and enthusiastic support of HP's National Recycling Week held from April 19 to 25.

During the Recycling Week, HP sought to encourage the public to recycle their e-waste by providing collection centres conveniently located at 20 SingPost outlets islandwide. Three of these outlets were in town while 14 were in the heart of HDB estates. Customers who recycled their HP DeskJet printers in these designated locations were also rewarded by HP with $10 Best Denki vouchers. HP is the only IT company to carry out a national recycling initiative in Singapore.

Response to the initiative was highly encouraging, with more than 1,100 pieces of IT equipment collected.

With regard to Ms Khoo's point on the need for easier access to collection centres for used printer ink cartridges, we would like to clarify that HP's cartridge recycling is already a nationwide programme covering 55 retail collection locations in Singapore. Going forward, we aim to expand the collection network to increase reach and accessibility.

In addition to providing a convenient means to return the product, HP guarantees all cartridges returned via our programme are diverted from landfill and recycled according to high environmental standards.

It is, nevertheless, our view that while manufacturers can provide infrastructure for consumers to return product for recycling, consumers themselves have the responsibility not only to return products to the correct designated collection locations, but also to ensure the system they use to recycle their products delivers real environmental outcomes.

Consumers need to be mindful that not all collection schemes, no matter how convenient they are to use, conform to high environmental standards. HP requires that all its hardware recycling vendors worldwide adhere to its global set of recycling standards, which are among the highest in the industry. We encourage our customers or anyone recycling their electronic equipment to look for this level of assurance in the recycling schemes available to them.

Besides the National Recycling Week, HP runs ongoing and periodic programmes in more than 40 countries, regions and territories to collect used IT equipment from businesses and consumers.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of HP's worldwide recycling programme. To date, HP is on track to recycle one billion pounds (450,000 tonnes) of electronic products and supplies by the end of 2007.

More information on HP's environmental policies and programmes can be found at www.hp.com/environment.

Jean-Claude Vanderstraeten

Asia Pacific/Japan Environment Director

Hewlett-Packard