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Partners urged to go green as 50 million metric tons of products are scrapped a year

Research suggests remanufactured laptops can perform at the same level as new devices

The channel is today being urged to invest in sustainable IT, with Circular Electronics Day highlighting the level of waste generated by the IT industry.

According to TCO Certified, an industry body which provides certification for sustainable IT products, the IT industry wastes over 50 million metric tons a year globally - a large proportion of which is valuable and still usable.

The body urged the IT industry to take advantage of the services provided by organisations that can refurbish products and components, and called on it to shift its mentality to one that makes recycling and reusing products the norm.

Andreas Rehn of TCO Certified said: "The purpose of Circular Electronics Day is to highlight the positives of reusing products and for people to share ideas and tips under the hashtag #CircularElectronicsDay.

"We can all inspire each other to reuse more and make sure that products have a second life instead of collecting dust in a drawer."

The results of a study commissioned by Cranfield University, commissioned by British remanufacturer Circular Computing, found that remanufactured laptops have 97 per cent of the functionality and performance of new devices.

This statistic, Circular says, should challenge the preconception that new products are guaranteed to perform better than second-hand products.

Rod Neale, founder of Circular Computing, said that some of the world's largest companies are already turning to sustainable devices, both to deliver value and help reduce the damage caused to the environment by IT waste disposal.

"CIOs are looking for new ways to deliver value," he explained. "They are turning to IT sustainability to better serve business strategy and the environment, and we've proved that we now have a previously unimaginable solution."

Circular says it has spent over $3m (£2.1m) on what it claims is the world's first purpose-built computer remanufacturing facility.