Dismantling of network in­fra­struc­ture

In places where we install new, more powerful networks, we also regularly dismantle old network in­fra­struc­ture. In 2020, the last cus­tomers were migrated over to IP. This produces large amounts of old hardware that can be dismantled and recycled. The (reusable) materials produced in the process will be either reused, resold to other providers or recycled. With the completion of the dismantling of the material-intensive platforms (TDM), the quantities to be recycled will also decrease. In the year under review, we dismantled and recycled 1,370 (prior year: 1,286) tonnes of iron, 78 (prior year: 140) tonnes of aluminium, 698 (prior year: 763) tonnes of cable and 677 (prior year: 437) tonnes of electrical waste and printed circuit boards. We use some components ourselves or sell them to other, usually foreign, network operators. Both reuse (of components, e.g. as spare parts) and resale (of entire systems or parts thereof on the market to other providers) reduce the general demand for newly manufactured parts and contribute to our climate protection goal.

Materials that can no longer be used are sent for recycling, where they are broken down into their individual parts and reprocessed so that they can be reintroduced into the material cycle. This procedure is resource-saving and is carried out for the most part in Switzer­land. The materials obtained include iron, silver, gold, palladium, copper and nickel.