Stone Group rolls out Europe-wide ITAD services business with Ingram Micro

IT reseller teams up with Ingram Micro in four European territories

Stone Group has announced a partnership with Ingram Micro to offer IT asset disposal (ITAD) services in France, Germany, Holland and Spain.

The reseller says that companies can book a collection of their end-of-use IT equipment in those four markets via its Stone 360 app, which was launched late last year.

The partner is calling for the channel to do more to combat the problem of e-waste, penning an open letter to the UK government last month to draw attention to the issue.

"Since the launch of the Stone 360 app in the UK, we have managed to save over 150,000 broken or redundant IT items from ending up in landfill," Stone Group director Tim Westbrook said.

"We're one of few IT resellers who take full responsibility for the kit we sell to our customers by investing in our own ITAD facility and the app to make it as easy as possible for our customers to dispose of their unwanted IT securely and sustainably."

Westbrook added that the reseller intends to "replicate this success further afield" with its Stone Group Europe ITAD services.

"Ingram Micro was the perfect company for us across these territories because they share our passion for taking responsibility for the items we sell to our customers and taking steps to help address the world's massive e-waste crisis."

He added: "They have excellent ITAD facilities in France, Germany, Holland and Spain and eventually we hope to extend our services to more countries across Europe."

In addition to recycling hardware, companies receive rebates on their old IT assets, which they can either cash in, or from September, choose to increase the value of their rebates by spend on new or refurbished IT.

Stone Europe will pick up customers' unwanted IT assets from their businesses or education campuses and take them to Ingram Micro's IT asset disposal facilities in each of the four countries for disposition.

Items such as laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, servers or other peripherals are all securely wiped of data by a skilled team of technicians and then any items that can be given a second life are refurbished and sold.

Those that can't be resold are broken down to their component parts and sustainably recycled.

The EU Parliament has highlighted that e-waste is the "fastest growing waste stream" in the EU and that as a whole, less than 40 per cent is recycled.

And individual country recycling practices vary greatly across the bloc.

Recent EU analysis of 2017 figures show that Croatia recycled 81 per cent of all electronic and electrical waste, while that figure was as low as 21 per cent in Malta.

Europe's top economy Germany recycled 38.7 per cent.

In addition to providing ITAD services, Stone Europe is also planning to extend sales of new IT solutions to customers in each market as part of its EMEA expansion.