When new equipment is delivered, IT staff takes the decommissioned equipment with them to forward it to the manufacturer. This has been the case worldwide since last year. "ZF has committed itself to returning the IT equipment; in that return, we receive a discount on the new equipment," says Gerhard Schauer. At ZF he is responsible for the IT workplace infrastructure. He and his colleagues are currently working on including 80 percent of ZF‘s locations in the program.
At the end of their lifecycles, all locations worldwide send their used equipment to the recycling company Tier1Asset in Denmark, Lenovo's contractual partner. After the incoming inspection, employees clean the devices and test all components. The devices are then classified into different quality categories.
Once a new operating system has been installed, the computers are resold. Hakan Budak, managing director of Tier1Asset, explains: "We expect the product lifetime to be extended by another seven years. We can refurbish around 90 percent of the delivered devices." And what happens to the remaining 10 percent? At least 90 percent of it can be recycled again. Recycling means the dismantling and separation of components and raw materials such as gold, lead, cadmium or plastic. All in all, the IT equipment achieves a recycling and reuse rate of 99 percent.
In this
video you will find more information on computer reconditioning and recycling.