Reuse Before Recycling

"Recycling" has become shorthand for doing the right thing with old equipment. For IT it is usually the second-best option. The best one is getting the device used again — and that is not just our opinion. It is how waste law is written.

The waste hierarchy

UK waste policy ranks the options for anything you no longer need, from most to least preferred:

1. Prevention — not creating the waste at all, for example by keeping equipment in service longer.
2. Preparing for re-use — checking, cleaning and repairing so something can be used again.
3. Recycling — turning it back into raw materials.
4. Other recovery — such as energy recovery.
5. Disposal — landfill, the last resort.

This is more than guidance. The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 require businesses to take reasonable measures to apply the hierarchy when they transfer waste, and the waste transfer note includes a declaration that they have. Sending working laptops straight to a shredder is difficult to square with that declaration.

Why reuse wins for IT in particular

Most of a computer's carbon footprint is spent making it. Recycling recovers metals and plastics, but the energy that went into refining them, making the components and assembling the device is lost the moment it is shredded. Reuse keeps all of that working.

Recycling also recovers less than people assume. Common metals such as steel, aluminium and copper are recovered well; many of the scarcer elements in modern electronics are recovered poorly or not at all. A device in use keeps every one of them in circulation.

What preparing for re-use involves

Anything that cannot be brought back to a usable standard is harvested for working parts, and only what is genuinely finished goes for materials recycling — through licensed processors, and never to landfill.

Where refurbished IT goes

Refurbished business laptops are in steady demand from small businesses, schools, charities and individuals who need a reliable machine without paying for a new one. That matters beyond carbon: a good refurbished laptop is often the difference between someone having a usable computer at home and not having one at all.

When reuse is not the right answer

• Equipment past its useful life — very old, unsupported or badly damaged devices.
• Damaged batteries — swollen or punctured lithium cells are a fire risk and are handled separately.
• Locked devices — a laptop still enrolled in Intune, Entra ID, Jamf or iCloud cannot be reused until it is released. Our MDM removal guide shows how.

Close the loop from your side too

The top of the hierarchy is prevention. Extending refresh cycles by a year, and considering refurbished equipment for roles that do not need the newest hardware, usually saves both money and carbon. Our director Kevan previously built and ran a certified B Corp that put refurbished IT ahead of new; it is a principle Revolve was built around rather than a line added later. More in our story.