A Bolton-based social enterprise has partnered with a local organisation to recycle its old IT equipment and help local people get online.
Starts with you, a social enterprise wholly owned by social housing provider Bolton at Home, works to create skills and opportunities in Bolton to help local people access quality jobs.
The organisation has supplied its used electrical equipment to Recycle-IT, so that it can receive a new lease of life helping local people access internet services and computer-based learning.
The first contribution to Recycle IT will involve six computer processors, 22 smartphones, and a TFT monitor.
The equipment, which has been replaced by new technology at Starts with you, will be sanitised and digitally wiped before being repurposed to support the local community.
They will be distributed to local people so they can access the internet to use key services such as banking, job applications, and managing finances – as well as online services to reduce loneliness and isolation.
The ongoing partnership between Starts with you and Recycle-IT aims to continue contributions of old equipment, which can help ensure members of the community aren’t left behind and have regular access to the internet and the opportunities it brings.
Hayley Hulme, managing director of Starts with you, said: “Working with businesses from and for the community in Bolton and who are committed to making a Positive Change is really important to us.
“We are delighted to have found Recycle-IT, to make sure our old equipment can be responsibly recycled in the communities that need it.
“We know our data is safely and professionally removed before when it is reused in the community.
“Our partnership with Recycle-IT also follows our plans to support community-minded social enterprises, and we really value the benefits from supporting similar social enterprises which exist to support our local people and communities.
“While this is our first contribution, we hope to supply more equipment which can be reused in the near future.”
Recycle-IT was founded by a former Big Issue vendor John Hastings.
He said: “We thank Starts with you for a contribution which can make a big difference locally.
“It was our pleasure to have collected the unloved but still very useful equipment and begin to process it through our workshop alongside trained staff and local volunteers.
“We are an environment agency-licenced professional service and a vital community resource uniquely placed between both with co-production and community inclusion central to our development.
“Partnerships like this genuinely help to make a difference to not only the planet as we have a 0% landfill policy but the digitally excluded members of our communities.”
Image: (L-R) Hayley Hulme, Claire Calman, and John Hastings with some of the equipment being donated
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