THOUSANDS more Coventry residents will be able to get online and find a local solution for recycling and reusing electronic waste.
Coventry City Council has established a new ‘circularity project’ with Virgin Media O2 to reuse businesses’ unwanted tech.
The partnership will expand the council’s #CovConnects Device Bank – described as a ‘foodbank for digital kit’.
The Device Bank works with local organisations – including NHS ICB Coventry and Warwickshire, and the University of Warwick – to data wipe and refurbish unwanted tech such as laptops and smart phones.
Local charities, community organisations, NHS services and council initiatives can then access the Device Bank to support residents. Alternatively, residents can access the devices via the Libraries laptop loan service.
The initiative is helping people experiencing financial hardship, those living with long-term health conditions or in temporary accommodation.
Coun Richard Brown, Cabinet Member for Finance at the council, said: “This is a great project and I really hope it will accelerate the second-hand tech reuse across the city that is already underway here.
“The big difference is it will aim to develop a way for old products, that would be wasted by local organisations, to be cleaned and revamped locally and found a new home in the city.
“For instance, when the Council has older laptops – rather than dump them – we clean them and make them available to people living in the Coventry area. We want to work together with other local businesses and organisations, to help create a city-wide approach benefiting Coventry, as it has an added benefit to the environment.
“It will further bolster digital access for residents across the city too, to ensure everyone has equal opportunities to access the benefits getting online can bring, and I hope lots of organisations will find ways to get involved meaningfully.”
The project aims to increase the number of Coventry businesses and organisations that donate their unused tech to #CovConnects.
Coun Brown added: “Creating a model of circularity, where unwanted tech can be used again and again within the city, also reduces the overall need for new devices.”
With more than four in 10 Coventry residents not having access to a laptop, the programme will help more digitally excluded people benefit from the online world.
Over the next 18 months, the organisations will encourage more businesses and public sector organisations to donate their unused devices, and will work together to identify and address barriers that might prevent obsolete tech from being donated for reuse.
Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “This is a landmark moment for Virgin Media O2 as we take our next step in championing a more circular economy for tech in the UK.
“Our ambition is to create a model of circularity that has a reuse-first approach, enabled via local device banks, which can then be replicated and rolled out across the UK.
“The most successful circular models are ones that are hyperlocal, utilising networks and partners that are grounded in local community needs. By working with Coventry City Council, we want to see more end-of-first-life corporate devices being rehomed with people who need them, helping to both transform lives and tackle e-waste.”
