Closing the Loop – Pragmatic solutions for Sustainable ICT

Closing the Loop (CTL) offers the first step towards circular usage of electronics. When you buy or lease a new device, CTL ensures the collection & recycling of an equivalent amount of electronic waste, also known as ‘e-waste compensation’ on a ‘One for One’ basis. As with Extended Producer Responsibility, a fee is paid to fund the collection. CTL’s services are used by leading public and private firms.

Sustainable procurement through ‘waste compensation’

CTL offers organisations across the globe pragmatic services for circular IT. It ‘closes the loop’ for the procurement and reuse of workplace hardware (focussing on phones, laptops and tablets).

CTL developed a service called waste-compensation. The service ‘compensates’ the consumption of electronic devices. This means that when a customer buys a new device CTL compensates the purchase by collecting an equivalent amount of electronic waste from countries that lack proper recycling capacity. The service is also known as waste compensation or ‘One for One’.

CTL’s circular services create commercial value for its customers AND they fund safe e-waste reduction in emerging markets. The latter is done by paying local communities to turn chemical waste into reusable materials in a safe and responsible way.

Solid approach

Closing the Loop has been involved in circularity for ICT for almost 8 years. Their corporate circular services have funded the collection of more than 2.7 million scrap phones. CTL’s work is promoted by industry shapers ITU and GSMA.

The company has also extensive experience in working with partners across the ICT value chain, such as OEMs, operators, IT resellers and financing/leasing firms. The main benefits that CTL creates for its partners – which includes industry leaders such as T-Mobile, Ingram Micro and Samsung – are on marketing, communications, sales, employee and customer engagement and of course on positive societal impact.

CTL’s core activity – collecting, transporting and recycling African electronic waste (see this video) – is done in an industry leading manner – and is tracked by Chainpoint. CTL’s leadership resulted in the adoption of waste compensation by the leading sustainability certifier for IT products.

http://www.closingtheloop.eu/