Wisetek’s Commitment to the Circular Economy
Sean Sheehan, CEO of Wisetek, discusses the future of the Circular Economy and how it relates to IT Asset Disposition (ITAD).
When the environment is mentioned in company boardrooms, it’s usually a dreaded topic which has only one outcome – increased costs due to new regulations. It’s a traditional view and pits business against the environment, as though they are adversaries who will never coexist peacefully.
Indeed, as long as companies adhere to the ‘Linear Economy’, this may well be the case. It’s an economic model that has five stages: resource extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and waste. And by waste, we mean waste: nothing is recycled. Instead, typically it’s sent to landfills where not even the soil benefits.
Let’s contrast this with the ‘Circular Economy’. The first three phases remain the same, but instead of waste, the commodity enters the ‘recycling sector’.
The Three Rs – Reuse, Repair, Recycle
The recycling sector encompasses three distinct processes: re-use, repair, and recycle. If you spend five minutes at your local recycling centre, you’ll appreciate the importance of the three Rs. Televisions, white goods, appliances: you will see such items that may well have been superseded by better models, but are in working order and can still find an appreciative home. Surely reusing these products instead of throwing them out makes perfect sense?
And if they are broken, why not fix them for a fraction of the cost of replacing an entire unit? Also, by doing so, you are not draining the earth of precious, and finite, resources.
Lastly, as for the products which are truly past their End of Life (EOL) then they should be destroyed in line with the best environmental practices and legislation. While this may cost a little more, at least you will know that potentially harmful substances (such as the metals inside batteries, for example) are not handled by child labourers in developing countries.