Recycled IT – helping people, helping the planet

Q3’s new sustainable initiative for redundant IT equipment

Q3 has started working with the Turing Trust on a recycling programme for all the company’s old and unwanted IT kit.

The Turing Trust was set up by the great nephew of Alan Turing, the famous mathematician, computer scientist, and cryptanalyst, who worked at Bletchley Park. The project honours his legacy by providing computers to those who need them most.

The Trust takes unwanted company PCs and laptops, as well as monitors, peripherals, tablets, mobile phones and cameras and refurbishes them in its Edinburgh workshops, before shipping them to schools and communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

So far, over 7,000 pieces of tech have been reconfigured and distributed by the organisation in this way, not only reducing the environmental impact caused by junking old machines, but also benefiting the educations of tens of thousands of students and school children in Africa.

The Turing Trust has a rigorous process for removing all sensitive data from the equipment, ensuring data security and GDPR are not compromised when the equipment is reissued. There is also an environmental benefit because equipping just one classroom with 20 reused PCs, saves 6 tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of planting 14 trees. This offsetting arrangement is something Q3 will be incorporating into our own CO2 emissions reporting and will ultimately contribute towards Q3 achieving its net zero target.

Q3 will be looking to integrate the Turing Trust capability into its waste offer to our clients and, and as soon as we can organise the logistics, we will offer the facility to staff for recycling their own, personal IT equipment.