At 3stepIT remarketing is responsible for refurbishing and reselling used equipment. This is a key part of 3stepIT’s approach to building a more sustainable future. Last year, we grew our remarketing business, handling 478,463 devices, up 13% on the year before.
Our remarketing team handles customers’ used devices in logistics centres, securely erasing their data, after which we refurbish them for resale. In 2018, we resold 97% of returned devices, with the remainder, damaged beyond economic repair were recycled using specialist partners. In our circular economy business, remarketing delivers the value that helps to make 3stepIT’s lifecycle management services more affordable.
Remarketing also buys used devices. We handle this equipment in the same way, to realise whatever economic value the old equipment has, and give customers the assurance that we protect their data securely.
Taken together we resold 13% more devices in 2018, each one displaces the manufacture of a new device and helps to make our customers’ IT more sustainable.
More progress
Working on used devices, with low resale values makes economic repair problematic. We started a repair pilot using badly damaged devices to provide spare parts. In the first two months of the pilot program, we worked on 1901 damaged devices. The pilot diverted 15.7% of the devices from recycling and improved the quality of another 83.8%. Only 0.5% of the devices were beyond repair and had to be recycled. We are developing and extending this repair program in 2019.
A new trial is starting now: Today 2-3% of returned devices are in poor condition. They can’t be repaired or resold so they go to recycling as e-waste. We are starting a trial now to ensure that all e-waste is reused in some way. I will report on our progress in a few months’ time.
Just as consumers are growing to be more environmentally aware, so are business and government. Improving sustainability of your operations is a way to differentiate your organisation and it is the right thing to do for the planet.
You can find out more about the work we do for sustainability in our 2018 Sustainability Report.
