* Appreciation of raw materials
* Desire to connect with local initiatives
* Thinking beyond depreciation cycles
* Some coordination effort
* Consultation with financial expert:in
* Save disposal fee
Does your company also discard IT technology after a defined period of time (usually a depreciation cycle) and replace it with new products, even though it is still functional?
Apart from the fact that one should critically question this circumstance, we can already do something in the meantime until the fundamental phenomenon is combated.
I recently agreed with a company that their depreciated IT technology and some furniture would be given to a non-profit -. a win-win situation for everyone: the company does not have to have its products scrapped, the association and its various cooperation partners receive functioning products.
Be on the lookout for local initiatives / organizations and ask if anything is needed, and if so, how the collection is reliably arranged. You have the small effort to list the products and, if necessary, to photograph them in order to hand them over to new hands. In addition, you should talk to your financial expert(s) about how the action can be reflected in the accounting system. So there is some coordination involved, although you would also have to coordinate and pay for the disposal of the equipment.
Should you not find a buyer:in, there are also companies that specialize in making business IT fit again for inexpensive resale (so-called „refurbished IT“). Examples include: „AfB - social and green IT“ or „Green Panda“. There are many more providers.
If IT still has to be disposed of, remember to dispose of it properly so that valuable raw materials can be recycled. For cell phones in particular, there are now collection campaigns and collection boxes run by various companies and initiatives almost everywhere. In some campaigns, you can even send in the cell phones free of charge. All devices contain valuable raw materials such as gold or copper. These are too valuable to be left unused, also because the extraction of raw materials causes massive problems: The mining is usually associated with human rights violations, child labor and destruction of nature! This makes proper recycling all the more important, so that these raw materials can be recovered and illegal exports of e-waste can be avoided. IT equipment should therefore not simply end up in hazardous waste.
ModificationAsk your employees whether they need company equipment for private use. Here, too, attention must be paid to financial issues (imputed income).
Bye, bye IT? If you are faced with this question, try this recipe.
Anyone who has tried or modified the recipe, feel free to comment!
This recipe is from
Kerstin Seeger