Recycle A Device needs your unwanted laptops
Often laptops and devices still work well when they reach the end of their life with an organisation. They might be a little slow or scuffed, but they're not destined for recycling yet. If you’re hoarding laptops that fit this description, read on.
Introducing Recycle A Device
Recycle A Device or RAD was born to bring the 'have laptops' people and the 'need laptops' people together. Launched in 2020, RAD is an initiative of Digital Future Aotearoa, which has the bold goal of bridging Aotearoa's digital divide. They're making it easy for sustainably minded organisations to get unused laptops into the hands of students who need them.
A device that connects to the internet is a need-to-have for students in Aotearoa, and the numbers suggest as many as 1 million people are missing out. That's 1 in 5 New Zealanders unable to engage with their education and connect with their community online.
Digital Future Aotearoa has a vision to "lift the digital capability of Aotearoa". Through RAD, they have distributed 1831 laptops, supporting more than 120 students and sparing 4.2 tonnes of e-waste from landfill.
Want to get your laptops to RAD?
If you’re a Brightly customer, we can do it for you! Send us a request and one of our team will get in touch. Otherwise, you can drop off your old laptops at one of Recycle A Device’s collection centres or, if you have enough of them, RAD can send a courier to collect them.
Even laptops that need a bit of love are welcome. These devices double their positive impact by being refurbished in workshops for students who want to grow these technical skills.
Who will clear the data from our devices?
Of course, for many organisations security is too strict for devices to be donated directly. If that’s the case, you can follow the example of NZTE and wipe them before donation. As a result, NZTE passed on 326 laptops!
A company called Entelar runs data sanitisation for RAD on devices that haven’t been reset yet. For Brightly customers, we work with Computer Recycling to securely wipe devices before suitable laptops are passed on to RAD.
What Brightly is doing to help
We're big supporters of the work RAD is doing. We regularly donate to their parent organisation Digital Future Aotearoa through One Percent Collective, and we also connected them with our friends at Computer Recycling. Many of our clients already work with Computer Recycling to process e-waste, and this new relationship with RAD offers an alternative pathway to connect old laptops to Aotearoa's students and rangatahi.
A big challenge for RAD is awareness. The problem they’re solving is big, but not enough people know about their work. When we have clients refreshing their IT, we make sure they know about RAD and their need for old devices.
If you know someone in an organisation who wants their old devices to go to a good home, let them know about Recycle A Device.