Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
New life for old techIn the past the Town Council supplied notebooks to any Councillors who needed them. Nowadays, they're happy to access email on their own devices to suit their preference of working, reducing the cost to the Town Council and local taxpayer. Over the years this left us with a store of obsolete devices (remember Windows 7??). Rather than leave all these unused devices in a cupboard, we reviewed them alongside our old office equipment (notebooks, laptops and phones).
It was important to us that this equipment didn’t go to waste and continues to serve a purpose if possible, so we set out to find a local charity that could help with restoring this equipment so that it can be passed on for community use. We chose Wiltshire Digital Drive to recycle 10 working devices. The notebooks and laptops will go on to be checked, factory reset safely and securely, and assessed for the best future use.
We're grateful to our Information Officer Apprentice, Emma, who spent lots of time investigating the far reaches of cupboards, matching power leads to devices, and running initial checks and wiping data. This was part of a broader project she has been doing for us, and you can see her in the photo preparing to take the kit off to be recycled.
Who are Wiltshire Digital Drive?
“A Community Interest Company on a mission to fix the digital divide by 2030, by refurbishing and redistributing second hand tech free of charge. We work alongside schools, charities, organisations and council services across Wiltshire & the Southwest to connect our devices with those that need it most.”