Collection and Disposal of Electronic Waste

Introduction The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather information on the latest available commercial environmentally acceptable solution for the collection, processing, recycling and disposal of electronic waste (E-Waste) from providers in the marketplace to fulfill the United Nations (UN) future requirements. The gathered information will be used to determine the feasibility, scope, cost estimate, timeframe, and resources required by the UN. UN expects to follow this RFI with a Request for Proposal (RFP) for E-waste solutions that will be able to meet the operational requirements of the Offices Away from Headquarters (OAH), the United Nations Global Service Centre (UNGSC), Regional Economic Commissions, Peacekeeping and Political missions worldwide, and other UN Secretariat supported entities. 1. Use of Information 1.1. All costs for preparing a response for the RFI must be covered by the vendor. 1.2. The requested information will only be used by the UN for internal planning purposes, be kept strictly confidential and only authorized personnel will have access to it. 1.3. The response to this RFI will not be used to pre-qualify vendors. 1.4. The provided information will not be contractually binding to the vendor. 2. RFI Response Delivery As the objective of this RFI is to both gather information on the latest solutions and find potential vendors, your willingness and ability to reply will be of mutual benefit. 2.1. Please email your response in electronic format (preferably as a searchable text PDF) to joni.kaerpijoki@un.org. 3. Current Situation and Goals The UN owns, manages, and operates a private network of communications and information technology equipment. The goals of the possible new solicitation process are to seek vendors capability on the provision, collection, and storage of broken, unserviceable and /or obsolete IT hardware and audio-visual / telecommunications devices, batteries of all description (wet/dry) including mobile phones and other electronic equipment from all associated United Nations entities to licensed recycling destinations for safe disposal. As part of the United Nations Environmental Strategy, the outcome should improve waste management, and reduce the level of risk to personnel, local communities, and ecosystems from generated waste. Interested vendors shall provide the following information listed below; 3.1 Provide the list of countries where services are provided including the description of the supply chain model(s), i.e collection, transportation, recycling and disposal of defective electronic equipment and electrical appliances. 3.2. Describe the overall capacity of equipment that can be recycled per month (# tons per category of products). 3.3. Provide an exhaustive list of electronic equipment/material that can and cannot be recycled 3.4. Describe the ability to properly destroy hard drives. 3.5. Provide Information on dismantling, separation in to various component parts for either onsite or downstream recycling and various methods that are used for formal processing such as grinding, shredding, and smelting including a list of the materials recovered. . 3.6. Describe details of E-Waste workflows, including any downstream recycling/processing for specific components and highlighting any licensed third-party contracts that would be involved. 3.7. Provide the capability on the provision of security and compliance, example highly secured facility 3.8. Explain if there are data privacy policies in place. For example, provide information on the handling of data on media sanitization, cleaning of all disk drives, and permanent destruction/shredding of removable media. 3.9. Capability for safe recycling and certification for Electronic Asset Disposition in accordance with (ITAD) regulations and data security. 3.10 Provide information on privacy and environmental protection policy and measures followed to ensure compliant formal processing of the e-waste with minimum environmental impacts. 3.11. Provide information on compliance with all the global regional, local laws, and regulations for e-waste processing and good environmental practice. 3.12. Provide information on certification and reporting for e-waste processing: vendor capable of issuing the certificate of data destruction and recycling for each electronic asset. 3.13. List any accreditations or international certificates the organization currently holds and their expiration date, copies of such accreditation/certificates must be provided. 3. 14. Provide information on Re-Use of raw materials; describe both recycling processes for Refurbishing and Recycling. In each scenario, vendors shall describe how the UN will recover the residual value of each item handled. 3.15 Provide a list of E-waste categories of products that can be recycled including the type of device and brands. 3.16 Describe any tracking dashboard of all assets being recycling. 4. Your Organization Please provide the following information on your organization: 4.1. Location of headquarters and main regional offices. 4.2. A brief general description of your company, its structure, years in business, and focus. 4.3. What makes your company stand-out as a solution E-waste solution provider. 4.4. Experience / Capacities, including experience in transboundary movement of e-waste. To ensure clarity, please answer/elaborate on the questions listed below: 5.1. Provide a brief description of your company’s experience in provisioning and managing global collection and disposal of E-Waste solutions. 5.2. Please elaborate on your companies international/regional support, training, support model, professional services, logistics, and other capabilities. 5.3. Describe how your company would approach the implementation of the E-waste collection, recycling disposal, and the efficient use of project management whilst retaining flexibility for rapidly changing requirements. 5.4. Please elaborate on the technologies and techniques you would consider appropriate to use in the dismantling/separation/refurbishment/recovery/disposal. 5.5. Please enclose a typical standard template Service Level Agreement (SLA) for this type of service. 5.6 Provide a standard set of global process controls or standards of your partners' facilities wherever the location where the quality of the work is guaranteed with regularly audited by your company on both upstream and downstream processes 6. Time Frame Please estimate the time required/needed to: 6.1. Respond to a comprehensive global RFP covering UN locations. 6.2. What is the approximate lead time for the collection and disposal of the E-waste 7. Risk Management / Mitigation Having reviewed and answered the above-listed questions, what do you consider to be the highest risk factors? 7.1. During implementation 7.2. During ongoing operation 7.3. How are these risk factors mitigated/managed? 7.4. In your experience, what has been the biggest issue faced on similar projects and how have you resolved them? 8. Important – Registration as a United Nations Vendor 8.1. Please note that companies willing to participate in a potential RFP solicitation will have to be a registered vendor with the UN. 8.2. Please access the Vendor Registration Application Forms and follow instructions at the website: http://www.un.org/Depts/ptd/register.htm. Please submit applications as soon as possible.