Product Stewardship

Material Reduction and Alternative Materials

One of our initiatives towards a more circular model is focusing on materials. We work on reducing the mass of materials used in the products, using the materials more than one time, increasing the use of recycled materials

Recycled and Bio-Composite Material in Products

Arçelik innovates products with increasing recycled plastics in a wide range of products. Thanks to the innovative recycled material formulations we have been developing over the years, each year we increase the recycled.

Our target is to increase recycled plastic content to 40% and biobased plastics content to 5% by 2030 in our own factories for the production of major domestic appliances (MDAs) and TV. Our holistic approach takes almost all the plastics in our products into consideration to maximize the plastic recycled content.

Recyclability of Products

At Arçelik, we design recyclable products to reduce environmental impact. We also continue to focus on improving the recyclability and disassembly of our products.

Energy And Water Efficient Products

Our primary focus in a product life cycle is on reducing the overall usage of energy and water in our products, which not only helps our customers save money, but also decreases their environmental impact. At Arçelik, a low carbon product has been defined as products that use less raw materials, recycled raw materials and consume less energy and water than the lowest allowable energy and water efficiency classes. There are other aspects of reducing environmental impact of products that are incorporated into our product design requirements but are not addressed directly by the low carbon product calculation methodology metric.

Durability, Reparability and Refurbishment

We extend product life through our initiatives to increase the durability, repairability, and reusability of our products. Durability Designing long-lasting products is one of our initiatives to support the circular business model. We apply reliability tests based on both product usage conditions and critical components to maintain its functionality.

Repairability

At Arçelik, we take the necessary improvement actions to reach higher repairability index scores. Our products are constantly evaluated by the quality and structural design teams and relevant repairability improvement projects are initiated based on the data received from authorized services or authorized repairers.

Modular Design

A modular design allows customers to create new designs simply and agile by replacing components without having to replace the entire product, thereby reducing unnecessary resource waste. In that regard, we have come a long way on a cross-functional modularity project involving a variety of product groups, from washing machines to TVs.

Refurbishment

Refurbishment centers have been available at our Türkiye plants since 1997 to encourage reuse and resource efficiency. Refurbished products refer to the products that have been used for a certain period by the customer and products with cosmetic defects displayed in dealer stores or products that have been damaged in logistic process. Such products are reprocessed and resold to the consumer at a reasonable price. With part replacements and comprehensive performance tests, product quality and performance features are brought to the same level as the new product.

Product Packaging

At Arçelik, we focus on three main areas in our sustainable packaging efforts:

• Reduce our products’ packaging volume and weight to produce minimum waste,

• Carry out reuse and recycling projects to reduce the environmental impacts caused by our packaging processes,

• Increase the recycled content of packaging and choose easily recyclable and sustainable materials.

Environmental Impacts of Products During Their Life Cycle

In line with our sustainability approach and commitment to protect the environment, we work to minimize the environmental impacts of our products throughout their lifecycle through new-generation practices, and to reduce our environmental footprint by effectively managing all stages of our value chain. In line with this principle, we conduct full life cycle assessment (LCA) studies for our products. We also use LCA to analyze the environmental impacts of material changes i.e. using recycled materials instead of virgin, energy consumption or process changes, transportation alternatives etc. to evaluate it as holistically and compare the different scenarios on different alternatives to find the approaches with less impact on the environment. So far completed studies for our washing machines, refrigerators, dishwashers, ovens, and tumble dryers.

Carbon footprint, as the subcategory of a LCA, of our products are also determined in detail to reduce the GHG impact of our products and reach our near-term and net-zero science-based targets.

End of Life Responsibility

As one of the most important implementations of Arçelik to contribute to the circular economy, Arçelik has two Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Recycling Plants in Türkiye. We collect the old products from the market regardless of brand and replace them with new appliances through our extensive network of authorized dealers and services. The collected refrigerators are recycled at the plant in Eskişehir, while other white goods and SDAs are recycled at the plant in Bolu.

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