A description of eReuse as case in the circular guide APC has published: “A guide to the circular economy of digital devices”, “Una guía sobre la economía circular de los dispositivos digitales”, “Guide de l’économie circulaire de nos appareils numériques”, October, 2021.
A Public dataset about reuse of computing devices under the eReuse device data commons license (CC BY)
The dataset originates from eReuse.org, a global community formed by social, public and private organizations interested in responsible reuse and recycling of computing devices. Since 2013 eReuse collects details about the second-hand computers and their components collected from resellers, with the purpose of keeping track of these devices and be able to analyze that data over their full lifespan until final recycling.
The devices are handled and data is extracted by different entities using eReuse software tools. They pool together part of their extracted data according to a data commons sharing license. This dataset only contains technical data about the functional status of computing devices and components its contains. Some details were anonymised.
From that data pool, it is possible to deduct detailed life-cycle data for each device across its lifespan if it reported multiple times, from the initial registration of a device until the last recording in a recycling center before being destroyed. The traceability dataset of individual devices and components allows different analysis per device and groupings.
More details of the research and more details on the computing device reuse activities.
We are in a “slow motion” environmental crisis, in comparison with the COVID crisis. There are many more electronic devices than people, and the numbers strongly vary depending on the source. ITU-T estimates 13 billion end-users ICT goods in 2015 and forecast 20 billion by 2030 (ITU-T_L.1470). The production of an ICT good has many times higher environmental impact than usage over their whole lifespan (Life-Cycle Assessment of Consumer Electronics). For that reason, the circular economy aims at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources, and represents an strategy to transform industrial processes to be more sustainable.
The mission of the eReuse community, shared with the USOdy initiative, is the transition to a collaborative and circular consumption of electronics. Some aims to achieve this:
We have been busy implementing a distributed ledger as a distributed source of truth for the traceability of computer devices. Every relevant operation on a device (ownership transfer, recycling, etc) is logged in our permissioned blockchain. Moreover, it is programmed to generate Proofs, that act as attestations about a past action or state of a device.
The use of the blockchain can provide, apart from a multi-stakeholder traceability system, a flexible approach to enforcing incentives throughout a device life-cycle. In the Ledger project, we have developed an incentive scheme according to which a form of a deposit is included in every device transfer between participants. This strategy, to promote the reuse and recycle of the devices with a “Deposit return system”, has been shown for other resources to be the most effective and sustainable way to make a zero waste circular economy happen as it maximises the lifespan of devices as useful resources.
However, that needs a careful data collection and processing policy:
This way, the ledger does not store any personal data, just proofs of it, and thus only meaningful for those that already have it. We use smart contracts to count and record results agreed to be made public (e.g. statistical data) to measure circularity, such as durability metrics for models and manufacturers, but individual details are not recorded.
In eReuse we definitely share the perspective of the Right to Repair campaign. The right is fundamental for reuse and for ensuring the longest lifespan of electronics, and even to give more usefulness and value to parts obtained from recycling. We joined the campaign!
Today 11 June starts RightsCon, the world summit that brings together initiatives and leading experts for their work on human rights in the digital age. RightsCon is an annual meeting that promotes AccessNow, one of the pioneering initiatives in defending groups around the world most vulnerable to technologies, in 5 axes: privacy, freedom of expression, digital security, human rights within digital companies and digital discrimination.
RightsCon takes place this year in Tunisia for 4 days and organizes its programming in 17 themes that add up to more than 450 sessions with more than 2500 participants from 130 countries.
From Pangea.org/eReuse.org, Leandro Navarro will participate tomorrow, Wednesday 12 June, in the session entitled “Climate change under construction: an environmentally sustainable Internet” along with other participants from the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Hungary and France.
LEDGER, a European Commission funded project looking for people working on decentralized technologies to give back citizens control over their data, held its Jury Day on Tuesday 28 May in Amsterdam.
The jury was to choose the 16 projects who are going to enter the one-year venture builder programme. The winners passed a thorough selection process with the 33 finalists pitching last Tuesday in front of a Jury made up by 8 qualified experts and professionals from the following organisations: Nesta, NLnet, Geant, Demos Helsinki, Decode and the 3 partners leading the project (FundingBox, Dyne.org, BluMorpho).
LEDGER promotes alternative models where data is a common good owned by citizens and wealth created by data-driven platforms is equally distributed. The Project supports Research and Innovation projects addressing decentralised technologies such as blockchain as well as privacy-by-design, reliability, trustworthiness and openness as core values.
The winners by alphabetic order are the following:
The selected projects will now have the opportunity of going far deeper in the fulfilment of their concept as they will enter a 12-month acceleration phase during which they will benefit from:
About LEDGER:
LEDGER is part of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, launched by the European Commission with the following ambition: shape the Internet in such a way that it is more transparent, inclusive, open, cooperative and respectful of data privacy.
With this goal in mind, LEDGER is a Minimum Viable Product programme encouraging developers, researchers, designers and entrepreneurs to use decentralised technologies such as blockchain, peer to peer and distributed ledger to build human-centric solutions to preserve the citizens’ sovereignty over their data.
Related links:
Site: //ledgerproject.eu
Open call site: //ledger-open-call.fundingbox.com/
Community site: //ledger.fundingbox.com/
//ngi.eu/
//www.fundingbox.com
//www.dyne.org
//www.bluemorpho.com
//twitter.com/LedgerEu
#LedgerEU #NGI4eu #NGI
Contact:
Andrés Sánchez Sandaza
andres@fundingbox.com
Tech4Climate, the investment and acceleration programme for startups in the field of the environment and sustainability, is starting its 6th edition with four new impact projects: Cuits & Beans, ereuse.org, Maichinery and Solatom. “This year’s call was a record, a total of 178 projects have started the selection process of the program, 68% more than the first call in 2018, where we received about one hundred applications,” says Juan Ignacio Zaffora, program manager of Tech4Climate.
Cuits & Beans, produces legumes and ecological derivatives ready to consume, without preservatives or additives, using during the preparation and packaging people with mental disabilities and at risk of social exclusion. For its part, ereuse.org, is a comprehensive solution to promote the reuse and recycling of electronic waste, and facilitate the traceability of products. Maichinery is a company that, through artificial intelligence, develops solutions for energy saving in buildings and industrial facilities. Finally, Solatom is a solar concentrator designed for the generation of high temperature heat in industrial processes replacing the use of fossil fuels with solar energy.
For 4 months, according to Zaffora, “startups will work in a personalized way together with experts to strengthen projects, seek synergies and alliances with program partners and other entities of our ecosystem and, finally, will be analyzed by our investment team to receive up to 400,000 euros, by Equity4Good, a vehicle that we manage from Ship2B and which has the co-investment of the European Investment Fund.ring the preparation and packaging people with mental disabilities and at risk of social exclusion. For its part, ereuse.org, is a comprehensive solution to promote the reuse and recycling of electronic waste, and facilitate the traceability of products. Maichinery is a company that, through artificial intelligence, develops solutions for energy saving in buildings and industrial facilities. Finally, Solatom is a solar concentrator designed for the generation of high temperature heat in industrial processes replacing the use of fossil fuels with solar energy.
For 4 months, according to Zaffora, “startups will work in a personalized way together with experts to strengthen projects, seek synergies and alliances with program partners and other entities of our ecosystem and, finally, will be analyzed by our investment team to receive up to 400,000 euros, by Equity4Good, a vehicle that we manage from Ship2B and which has the co-investment of the European Investment Fund.
ES / EN
ereuse.org es uno de los tres finalistas en la categoría “entidad” de la primera edición de los Premios #Rezero. El veredicto será anunciado el 8 de noviembre en el marco del evento anual que Rezero celebra. Será en la Sala 1 del Recinto Modernista de Sant Pau, de 18 a 20 horas.
Los otros dos nominados en la categóría “Entidad” son la Fundación Banc de Recursos y su inicativa El Pont Solidari, y el proyecto Pam a Pam de Setem.
La Fundación Catalana para la Prevención de Residuos y el Consumo Responsable -Rezero- nace en 2005 como una entidad privada sin ánimo de lucro y de ámbito catalán. Ha sido impulsada por entidades ecologistas y cívicas del país con el apoyo y la participación de sectores diversos de la sociedad civil, las administraciones y el mundo empresarial.
Buscan cambiar el modelo de producción y consumo hacia el Residuo Cero, impulsando acciones y políticas transformadoras de prevención de residuos trabajando en red con todos los agentes sociales y económicos.
Día: 8 de noviembre
Cuándo? 18-20 horas
Dónde?: Recinto Modernista de Sant Pau
Address: Carrer de Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 167, 08025 Barcelona.
ES / EN
Ereuse is one of the three finalists in the “entity” category of the First Edition of the #Rezero Awards. The verdict will be announced on November 8 in the framework of the annual Rezero event in Barcelona, in Sala 1 of the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
The other two nominees in the “entity” category are Fundació Banc de Recursos and its El Pont Solidari initiative, and the Pam a Pam de Setem initiative.
The Catalan Foundation for the Prevention of Waste and Responsible Consumption -Rezero- was created in 2005 as a private non-profit and Catalan-based entity. It has been driven by ecological and civic organizations in the country with the support and participation of diverse sectors of civil society, administrations and the business world.
They work to change the model of production and consumption towards Residuo Zero, promoting actions and transformative policies for waste prevention working in a network with all social and economic agents
Day: November 8
When? 6 to 8 in the afternoon
Where?: Sala 1 of the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau
Address: Carrer de Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 167, 08025 Barcelona.
English | Spanish
by David Franquesa, Leandro Navarro, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, eReuse.org
Reuse of electronic devices such as desktops, laptops or mobile phones is applied to devices that have already been manufactured and are no longer in use (disposal) and will be recycled unless they are not repaired, refurbished and/or redistributed to other users. The reuse process ends when after a few years the device or a component returns to the disposal state, which means its use value then, or potential if improvements were made, does not allow its reuse again. Thus ending in recycling, a process that transforms computational use value into raw material use value [1].
We say that a device or component is reusable if it has any use value for someone. We use the word “potential” because when a device is not currently in use (going to disposal) it will only be reused if a preparation for reuse process is applied and the same user or another user finally reuses it. We refer by “use value” to the capacity of a device to satisfy a need, in our case of computing (storing, computing, viewing data, etc.), and not to the “exchange value” of a device on the market. The value of exchange depends on factors such as the value of its resources used during its life cycle, the work added to make raw materials computing usable, or supply and demand, and other factors not currently considered, such as the social impact on the extraction of materials, labor aspects or the pollution generated. We say that the use value of a device is universal and does not depend on a specific geographical location. It does not depend on the value given by the current user that wants to dispose a given device, which is its subjective perception of value, the he may consider it too low while there may be someone else not too far away willing to recondition and use it.
El Ayuntamiento de Barcelona y la Asociación Pangea han firmado un acuerdo de colaboración para ceder dispositivos tecnológicos en desuso, restaurarlos y revisarlos para alargar el tiempo de vida útil y cederlos, finalmente, a entidades sociales. Se trata de una apuesta estratégica y de un compromiso para impulsar la economía circular.
El acuerdo se estrena con una primera donación, a través del Institut Municipal d’Informàtica (IMI), de 360 ordenadores y 90 monitores, plenamente operativos, a la cooperativa Alencoop, una de las entidades que se encargará de ponerlos al día antes de cederlos a las personas o entidades sociales. El proyecto de donación de equipamiento informático al Circuito eReuse.org permitirá al Ayuntamiento ceder anualmente alrededor de un millar de aparatos municipales a medida que vayan siendo sustituidos.
Esta acción forma parte de la apuesta del Gobierno municipal para impulsar la corresponsabilidad social y ambiental del sector tecnológico. Se trata de una apuesta por un desarrollo sostenible y por un modelo circular en el que los residuos se convierten en recursos y se cierran los ciclos de vida de los productos. Se convierte, también, en una vía de generación de ingresos para las empresas de economía social que participan a lo largo de todo el proceso.
Un circuito que alarga la vida útil de los dispositivos y garantiza su uso por parte de entidades sociales
Con el acuerdo firmado, el gobierno municipal se compromete a donar ordenadores, teléfonos móviles, impresoras y fotocopiadoras, proyectores o portátiles, entre otros, que ya hayan quedado obsoletos a la administración. A través del programa eReuse.org, impulsado por la asociación Pangea, este material se restaurará, reparará – en caso de que sea necesario -, se actualizará y, finalmente, acabará cediéndose a entidades de economía social de la ciudad. Un proceso que se hace con plenas garantías de seguridad.
El acuerdo contempla que toda la logística, el transporte, la reparación, revisión y demás actividades para la reutilización del hardware corra a cargo de entidades o empresas de economía social de la ciudad, como la cooperativa Alencoop, Trinijove o Solidança, que podrán crear empleo para hacer esta tarea. Estas entidades recibirán una remuneración por parte de la red Reuse para poner al día los equipos, con garantía, antes de cederlos, a precio de coste y muy por debajo de mercado, a los usufructuarios finales.
Los beneficiarios finales de estos ordenadores monitores, o impresoras serán entidades, cooperativas, fundaciones, asociaciones y entidades sin ánimo de lucro, así como particulares acompañados por Servicios Sociales. Posibles destinatarios o usufructuarios de estos ordenadores podrían ser entidades como el Banco de los Alimentos, o niños de familias atendidas por servicios sociales que no disponen de ordenador ni conexión a internet en casa. La entidad o persona a la que se ceden los dispositivos no podrá hacer en ningún caso un uso comercial de los dispositivos dados.
El convenio para promover la donación de equipamiento informático del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona está liderado desde el Comissionat d’Economia Social, Desenvolupament Local, y cuenta con la colaboración y del Institut Municipal d’Informàtica (IMI) que coordinará la logística y de Patrimonio, el organismo propietario de los dispositivos. El convenio tiene una vigencia de dos años con posibilidad de prórroga para dos más.
Esta iniciativa es un ejemplo del impulso a las verdaderas economías colaborativas por parte del Ayuntamiento, Pangea y Ereuse, que forman parte de Barcola, un espacio de colaboración entre activistas, investigadores y personas emprendedoras y la administración para generar proyectos conjuntamente.
Un ejemplo de economía circular que sigue el ejemplo iniciado por Barcelona Activa
Este convenio amplía el acuerdo existente desde 2017 entre la agencia municipal Barcelona Activa y la Asociación Pangea con esta misma finalidad. En cuanto a las donaciones de equipamiento de Barcelona Activa, durante el año 2017 se realizaron 3 donaciones en el Circuito eReuse Barcelona que han representado un total de 564 equipos entre sobremesa y portátiles.
Hasta el día de hoy se han reutilizado 77 equipos y el restante permanece en las instalaciones de Solidança i Treball i de Alencop Cooperativa a la espera del siguiente piloto que hará uso de la última versión de la plataforma. Las entidades receptoras han sido la entidad Ton i Guida, Metido, Fundesplai, EXO, San Juan de Dios Tierras del Ebro y la escuela Ignacio Iglesias.