Circular Economy IT Vocabulary — E-waste, ITAD & Hardware Lifecycle
Learn circular economy vocabulary for IT: e-waste, IT asset disposition (ITAD), refurbishment, right-to-repair, hardware lifecycle management, responsible disposal, and circular procurement language.
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What is IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) and why is it a sustainability concern for organisations?
ITAD best practice hierarchy (from most to least sustainable): (1) Reuse internally — redeploy to less demanding roles. (2) Resell/donate — extend asset life with another user. (3) Refurbish — repair and resell through certified ITAD vendors. (4) Recycle — recover materials through R2/e-Stewards certified recyclers. (5) Destroy — only for data-bearing devices that cannot be sanitised otherwise. Embodied carbon of a laptop is ~300-400kg CO2eq — disposing of it after 2 years instead of 4 doubles the per-year carbon cost of that hardware.
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What is 'embodied carbon' in the context of IT hardware and why does it affect hardware lifecycle decisions?
Embodied carbon examples: smartphone ~70 kg CO2eq, laptop ~300-400 kg CO2eq, server ~1,000-3,000+ kg CO2eq. For a modern ARM laptop running on renewable energy, manufacturing emissions may represent 80%+ of lifetime carbon. Extending hardware life from 3 to 5 years reduces annualised embodied carbon by 40%. Cloud providers' 'green' claims often focus on operational (Scope 2) emissions while embodied carbon from millions of servers is a major Scope 3 source. 'Our hardware refresh cycle extension from 3 to 5 years reduced annualised hardware emissions by 35%.'
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What is the 'right-to-repair' movement and its relevance to sustainable IT procurement?
Right-to-repair in IT procurement: when evaluating hardware vendors, sustainable procurement language includes: 'Does the vendor provide service manuals and sell spare parts?' 'Is the device modular (upgradeable RAM/storage)?' 'How long does the vendor commit to spare parts availability?' EU Right to Repair Directive (2024) extends to electronics. Repairability scores (iFixit) can be included in procurement criteria. Apple M-series vs. framework laptops illustrate the spectrum. 'Our procurement policy now requires a minimum iFixit repairability score of 7/10 for laptop purchases.'
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What is 'circular procurement' in IT and how does it differ from traditional IT procurement?
Circular procurement criteria examples: (1) Take-back programme — does the manufacturer accept old devices for refurbishment or responsible recycling? (2) Repairability — modular design, available spare parts, service documentation. (3) Longevity — length of software/firmware support (e.g., Chrome OS End of Life dates). (4) Refurbished options — buying certified refurbished hardware from previous IT refresh cycles. (5) Packaging — recyclable/minimal packaging. EU Public Procurement Directive encourages circular criteria. 'We awarded the laptop contract to the vendor offering the highest repairability score and a 5-year take-back guarantee.'
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What is the difference between 'recycling' and 'refurbishment' in responsible IT asset disposal vocabulary?
Circular economy hierarchy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation): highest value — maintain/repair → reuse/redistribute → refurbish/remanufacture → recycle → recover energy → landfill (lowest). Refurbishment preserves more value: a refurbished laptop resells for £200-400 and displaces the manufacturing of a new device. Recycling recovers £5-20 in materials. Certified ITAD vendors: R2 (Responsible Recycling), e-Stewards standards. Data security in ITAD: NIST 800-88 data sanitisation standards (clear, purge, destroy) must precede resale or donation. 'All decommissioned servers undergo NIST 800-88 purge before ITAD vendor collection.'