Coventry City Council has established a new partnership with Virgin Media O2 that will help thousands more Coventry residents get online and find a local solution for recycling electronic devices.
It’s called a circularity project and will help find new ways of using items that might usually be wasted and will also help to expand the work in the city to rehome end-of-life corporate devices with those who need them across the city.
Foodbank for digital kit
The Council coordinates the #CovConnects programme in partnership with local organisations across the city to help more people get online. As part of this, the #CovConnects Device Bank has partnered with local organisations, including NHS ICB Coventry and Warwickshire, and the University of Warwick, to data wipe and refurbish their unwanted tech into a ‘Device Bank’ – like a foodbank for digital tech such as laptops and smart phones.
Local charities and community organisations, NHS services and council initiatives can then access the Device Bank to support residents. Alternatively, residents can access the devices via the Libraries laptop loan service.
#CovConnects is helping to transform people’s lives across Coventry. This includes people experiencing financial hardship, those living with long-term health conditions or in temporary accommodation.
Cllr Richard Brown, Cabinet Member for Finance at the Council, said: “This is a great project and I really hope it will accelerate the second-hand tech reuse across the city that is already underway here. The big difference is it will aim to develop a way that old products, that would be wasted by local organisations, can be cleaned and revamped locally and found a new home in the city.
“For instance, when the Council has older laptops - rather than dump them - we clean them and make them available to people living in the Coventry area. We want to work together with other local businesses and organisations, to help create a city-wide approach benefiting Coventry, as it has an added benefit to the environment.
“It will further bolster digital access for residents across the city too, to ensure everyone has equal opportunities to access the benefits getting online can bring, and I hope lots of organisations will find ways to get involved meaningfully.”
Virgin Media O2 is helping to scale up the Council’s pioneering #CovConnects digital inclusion programme and it’s Device Bank that rehomes end-of-life devices from businesses and public sector organisations, such as phones, tablets and laptops, with communities that need them across Coventry.
The project aims to increase the number of Coventry businesses and organisations that donate their unused tech to #CovConnects, to prevent devices from ending up as electronic waste, which instead can be given a second life and help those in need get online.
Cllr Brown added: “Creating a model of circularity, where unwanted tech can be used again and again within the city, also reduces the overall need for new devices.”
With more than four in 10 Coventry residents not having access to a laptop, the programme will help more digitally excluded people benefit from the online world.
This includes adults accessing cheaper online deals or applying for work or taking part in virtual job interviews, or schoolchildren carrying out homework, so they don’t fall behind with their education.
Over the next 18 months, the organisations will encourage more businesses and public sector organisations to donate their unused devices, and will work together to identify and address barriers that might prevent obsolete tech from being donated for reuse.
With the donated tech, the programme is helping people learn new skills, take part in online learning, build businesses, and manage their mental health by keeping them connected to loved ones or entertainment, which is reducing loneliness and isolation.
The partnership forms part of Virgin Media O2’s ongoing commitment to drive the UK’s circular economy and to support tech being reused.
Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “This is a landmark moment for Virgin Media O2 as we take our next step in championing a more circular economy for tech in the UK.
“Our ambition is to create a model of circularity that has a reuse-first approach, enabled via local device banks, which can then be replicated and rolled out across the UK.
“The most successful circular models are ones that are hyperlocal, utilising networks and partners that are grounded in local community needs. By working with Coventry City Council, we want to see more end-of-first-life corporate devices being rehomed with people who need them, helping to both transform lives and tackle e-waste – a win-win for communities and the planet.”