Recycling materials from computers and IT equipment is a process, which should be a last resort. As part of efforts to reduce the amount of electronic waste going to landfill sites, we adopted a version of the “reduce, reuse, recycle” concept. We call this our five R’s: renew, repair, reuse, remix and recycle. This expands upon the original idea of fighting planned obsolescence by reusing and up-cycling everyday items in our society. This involves maximising the use and reuse of computers, mobile devices and peripherals, as well as their underlying parts. Our five R’s are as follows:
Renew
This means prolonging the useful life of computers, mobile devices and IT equipment in various ways. To do this, we can install or replacing parts in computers with better ones. We can perform factory resets on mobile devices or IT equipment to remove user data or fix problems. Re-installing operating systems is another way to fix software problems or start over with a clean slate. We can also use software utilities to remove junk data or other unwanted or redundant software. Once we renew them, we can give them away to other people in the community who need them.
Repair
This involves replacing faulty, dead or damaged parts from computers, mobile devices or peripherals with working components to make them work again. At some point, we all had moments where parts in our devices go wrong. Sometimes, little mishaps can crack or dent cases, break internal components, or smash screens. But it’s much better for the environment to fix our broken gadgets, than discard them and buy new ones. That’s why we strive to make use of spare parts that we have at hand, wherever possible. We only source brand new parts when we don’t have the needed parts on hand for a repair.
Reuse
If we cannot repair a computer, mobile device or peripheral, then we can remove any working parts and re-use them for the same purposes in other items. Reusing viable parts is a great way to keep them out of landfill sites. And doing so reduces the need to buy new parts and devices. For example, a working hard drive from a dead digital TV recorder, adds extra storage space in a desktop PC.
Remix
When we “remix” something, we refer to repurposing peripherals, or parts from computers or mobile devices for entirely different use cases. We can still find viable uses for gadgets, parts and computers that are no longer suitable for their original purpose. For example, we could use a working heat-sink assembly from a dead laptop as part of a desktop light fixture. Remixing devices and individual parts helps save them from recycling and disposal.
Recycle
Recycling is the last resort, when we can’t renew, repair, reuse and/or repurpose things any more. This is because computers, mobile devices, peripherals or the individual parts from them become too badly broken to mend. Alternatively, otherwise perfectly functional devices become obsolete and so, are to old to be worth giving away. When this happens, we send them away for recycling. Recycled items then go on to become other useful everyday objects.