Pure Technology launches new scheme to combat e-waste
Leeds-based VAR partners with IT asset recovery specialist for e-waste reduction scheme
Companies need to take action to ensure they are countering the impact their e-waste is having on the environment, according to Pure Technology's COO Cliff Fox.
Pure Technology has teamed up with IT asset disposition (ITAD) S2S for a new refurbishment and recovery initiative, called zeroC. It will provide a "cradle-to-grave" lifecycle management service for IT devices - including laptops, smartphones, tablets - for organisations of all sizes, Fox said.
The scheme was due to launch earlier this year but was delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak. However, the rationale behind the scheme is as pertinent now as it was when it was being created last year.
"We were going to launch this originally in March, and then obviously the world changed," Fox told CRN.
But notwithstanding that, the thinking last year - and it hasn't changed really - is that, obviously, as a species, we're pretty much destroying the planet.
"And while we're relying on governments and countries to make some big decisions in that regard, everybody can do the maximum they can in their own way. We were just looking at ways that we could offer a third option with how people treat devices, and teamed up with S2S to explore that more fully, and look at what could be done."
The scheme also offers a cost-effective way for customers to get the most use out of all of their devices, Fox added.
"It hits three marks that are relevant for people; one being theless consumptive approach to what people are doing around making devices last as long as possible and getting the maximum value out of them," he elaborated.
"It also has a cost-saving part of it that we can show people where they can save on the total cost of ownership and budgeting, while at the same time make it a modernised endpoint so that people can use the latest collaboration tools and also have it much more secure as an end point."
Refurbishing a laptop through the zeroC scheme is expected to save the equivalent of 250kg of CO2, along with saving organisations an average of 50 per cent compared to buying brand new.
Fox said that the scheme's model is set up to make it as flexible as possible for clients, whether they want to refresh their current kit, buy refurbished or a mix of both.
"If people want to have a routine whereby their existing IT assets can be renewed and refreshed, we can accommodate that," he said.
"If people have a preference to buy refurbished equipment, we can manage that for them and we handle procurement part of that, or if it's a mix and match, we can accommodate that too.
"We wanted to make it completely flexible according to what people wanted."
In the UK, households and businesses produce around 1.45 million tonnes of e-waste per year, according to recent research from Material Focus, a not-for-profit organisation that helps the UK meet its e-waste recycling goals.
Pure and S2S have worked together on similar e-waste projects in the past and the latest venture is a "blossoming" of that partnership. Fox added.
"The relationship has blossomed and, as companies, we like each other a lot so it's an evolution of that relationship," he said.
Pure and S2S will also plant one tree in the Amazon rainforest for every device purchased under the zeroC initiative.
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