Most of the iST plants are located in well-planned industrial zones or science parks. These areas have passed government environmental impact assessments and are not located in environmentally sensitive areas. Therefore, they do not significantly impact the biodiversity of the surrounding environment. As a technical service provider in the electronics industry, our business model focuses on providing professional services rather than manufacturing, and we primarily generate general and hazardous waste. General waste refers to employees’ daily living waste. Hazardous business waste primarily comes from chemical waste liquids produced in the laboratory and electronic component scraps.

In 2024, the output of general industrial waste was 36.27 tons, and the output of hazardous industrial waste was 8.09 tons. All waste was disposed of by qualified waste disposal contractors in accordance with the law. General industrial waste from some plants (Taiyuan, Neihu, and Changyi) was centrally handled by the building management committee. The following management actions are used to properly dispose the waste and ensure there is no significant impact on the environment of the Company.

1. After the department sorts and stores the waste in accordance with its characteristics, the EHS personnel look for lawful waste clearance and disposal service providers depending on the type of the waste, and then make assessment and enter into an agreement after confirming they have acquired the EHS related permit and license. We perform on-site audits of each waste disposal service provider every year and assess the renewal of the agreement and partnership in accordance with the compliance of the EHS related permit and license, management of the waste storage area, operation of the pollution prevention equipment, and on-site safety management of the operations.
2. Hazardous industrial waste is subject to testing conducted by a third party according to its characteristics every year. The purpose of this test is to confirm that the property of the waste complies with the waste code and the disposition approach. The temporary storage and generation volumes of the waste in every factory area are reported every month to confirm a mass and energy balance is achieved between the generation and disposition of the waste.
3. We perform inspection and audit of the waste storage site and make records accordingly to confirm the sorting and storage status of the waste, the safety of the storage environment, and the compliance with the law.
4. Before waste is cleared and leaves the factory, the “Triplicate Delivery Manifest for Joint Disposal and Control of Industrial Waste under Commission” is reported online. The vehicles used for clearance of the waste must have a GPS for control during the waste clearing process to ensure the waste is transported to the disposal organization appropriately. After confirming the disposal organization has received the batch of waste concerned, we enter the system website of the Ministry of Environment to confirm that the waste clearance and disposal service provider has reported the clearance of the waste and the status of the disposal to ensure that the waste is finally disposed of in compliance with the law.

In addition to reducing waste generation at the source and seeking alternative materials to minimize waste, waste produced from in-factory production and manufacturing is effectively reused through collection, classification, reduction, and recycling – for example, sample packaging materials and wooden pallets are recycled and reused. The total weight of recyclable waste in 2024 was 15.52 tons. By implementing garbage sorting measures within the plant, we effectively separated waste paper, waste plastic, waste metal, and other recyclable materials. Consequently, the amount of recycled materials has increased year by year, and waste intensity was reduced by 5.68% in 2024, achieving our target of a 4% reduction. The waste disposal status and waste intensity are shown in the table below.

In addition, we are looking for a waste disposal site with that closer to Hsinchu as the first priority to reduce the GHG emissions. We implement the waste disposal plan and the delivery manifest checking mechanism to check the waste disposal service provider. There was no leakage of waste in 2024.