Sims Recycling Solutions Launches Circular Trade-In Program for E-Waste Management with SURFsara

Innovative new partnership promotes responsible reuse and recycling of SURFsara’s electronic assets

December 2, 2019

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS), a global leader in IT asset disposition and cloud recycling, announces that SURFsara has selected SRS as its e-waste recycling vendor. SRS will ensure that all SURFsara’s electronics are responsibly redeployed, remarketed or recycled. SRS and SURFsara are committed to contributing to the circular economy and reducing e-waste and have initiated a unique program with a goal of reducing e-waste to zero.

Electronic equipment that is at the end of its useful life with SURFsara is returned to SRS for disposition. SRS assesses the assets for potential resale as whole units or parts and components and diverts as much as possible to be refurbished and remarketed via the trade in program.

Assets are resold to end users who are then obliged to trade in their own used assets in return for a discount on their new purchase. For every unit that is sold, a comparable unit is handed in for responsible recycling – one-for-one. Recycling volumes are increased, electronics are disposed of correctly and irresponsible e-waste dumping avoided. Prior to recycling, all data is securely erased from SURFsara’s equipment.

This innovative partnership extends the usable life of SURFsara’s equipment, optimises its value, encourages reuse and attracts more volume of materials for recycling.

“There is a huge demand for sustainable e-waste solutions for datacenter equipment”, says Leonieke Mevius, community manager corporate social responsibility at SURF. “As the collaborative organisation for ICT in Dutch education and research, SURF supports education and research institutions in making their IT more sustainable. This includes the sustainable disposal of hardware. We encourage people from research and education institutes to exchange knowledge with us on this subject.” 

“We believe that moving from an unsustainable linear model to a circular model is the path forward to avoid depleting finite raw material resources,” highlighted Jelle Slenters, head of business development EMEA. “Reusing and recycling retired IT assets and electronics enables our clients to benefit from improved processes, better environmental outcomes and improvement to the bottom line.”

If it is not economically feasible to reuse equipment, the units are shredded and sorted to recover materials. Recycling materials for remanufacturing diverts material from landfill or incineration and provides a feedstock for making next generation products, reducing pressure on raw materials.