O2 Recycle calls on businesses to recycle unused tech for rewards

To mark Recycle Week 2021 O2 Recycle is calling on business owners to recycle their old e-waste in exchange for a cash boost reward
O2 Recycle has saved more than £400,000 for businesses in the last year, recycling 26,000 devices (with zero waste to landfill)
With small businesses looking to upgrade their tech and enable better working on the go, recycling old devices can support the circular economy

This Recycle Week (20^th-26^th September), O2 Recycle is calling on businesses to recycle their unused tech when they are upgrading to new devices, and benefit from a cash-back boost for trading their e-waste in for recycling or refurbishment. With September the busiest time for trade-ins, and popular new devices coming to market, now is the perfect opportunity for business owners to fight e-waste and trade in any and all old phones, tablets or smart watches that might be hidden away in drawers and cupboards.

Since 2009, O2 has paid out more than £250 million through O2 Recycle, more than £400,000 of this to businesses in the last year alone – with the scheme open to everyone, regardless of their network. Around 26,000 business devices have been recycled through the scheme in the last 12 months. Almost 95% of the tech that comes into Recycle is refurbished and re-used – with zero going to landfill – extending the life of devices and supporting the circular economy.

Maria Fernandez, Director of Small & Medium Business at Virgin Media O2, said: “Over the past 18 months, tech has helped keep UK businesses moving – and according to our research, small businesses are continuing to invest in higher quality connected devices to help future-proof their business and support them in the shift to more working on the go. Trading in their old tech is a great way to upgrade to the latest handsets, tablets and wearables more sustainably: keeping used devices out of landfill, giving tech a new lease of life and fighting e-waste at the same time.”

As well as encouraging small businesses to recycle their old devices, O2 Business is also helping owners to consider small changes to the way they use technology to help reduce their carbon footprint, as the UK embraces flexible working – in the office, at home and on the go.

Working with IC&CO and carbon foot-printing specialists One Point Five Degrees, O2 has mapped out a series of easy to adopt hacks, tips, and tricks to help businesses use digital technology in a more sustainable way.

The top five tips for small businesses are:

Don’t default to video: A two-person Zoom call lasting an hour each working day has a carbon cost of 170kg per person over the course of a year. Mix video calls with walking meetings and phone conversations to help avoid Zoom fatigue and reduce your carbon impact
The future is hybrid: Continue to embrace remote working where you can, to reduce the carbon impact of the daily commute. Research shows the UK could cut travel emissions by 14.3 megatonnes of CO2e a year if everyone who could, worked from home twice a week
Collaborate in the cloud: Using shared cloud services rather than sending attachments on emails helps organisations make environmental gains. It’s also far more environmentally friendly than printing, which causes waste and can cost up to 20kg of CO2 emissions over the year (based on printing a six-page document each day)
Spring clean your storage: Remove unnecessary or duplicate files from cloud services. If each of us removed just three photos from our cloud servers, we’d save a combined 11 Mt of CO2 globally – the equivalent of Panama’s carbon footprint
Go dark: Switch on dark mode and limit pop-up notifications to help you save on screen time and avoid energy drain on devices

To find out more about trading in your old business devices through O2 Recycle please visit o2recycle.co.uk or call the dedicated business team on 01603 269950.

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References

Standardised Carbon Footprinting Documents

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greenhouse-gas-reporting-conversion-factors-2020

Basic energy use calculator
https://energyusecalculator.com/electricity_printer.htm

Power usage of smart home gadgets
https://www.the-ambient.com/features/power-smart-home-tech-yearly-cost-374

Paper waste analysis in the office
https://cundall.com/Cundall/fckeditor/editor/images/UserFilesUpload/file/WCIYB/IP-6%20-%20CO2e%20emissions%20due%20to%20office%20waste.pdf

5 kWh per GB of data paper
https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2012/data/papers/0193-000409.pdf

Zoom and Oracle data usage
https://www.oracle.com/customers/zoom.html

Countries by CO2 emissions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions