Highland council recycles unwanted computers

Highland council has launched a project to recycle up to 3,500 computers for use by communities and children across the area. The initiative is a "spin-off" from its current £66m contract with Fujitsu to replace and upgrade the council's office and schools IT systems and assist the council in meeting targets to reduce its energy use and carbon emissions. Fujitsu is investing more than £300,000 in the recycling project, which will see the computers being processed by Scottish social enterprise ReBOOT and then redistributed across the region. The first batch of more than 60 laptops will go out to community organisations. Highland council said that more than 350 community organisations are set to receive 600 of the recycled devices over the next year, along with young people who meet specific criteria. Children looked after by the council will receive equipment and up to 100 Highland young carers will also be offered visits in which they will learn how the rebuilding process takes place and then build their own computers to take home and use. In total, 10,000 devices will have their hard drives wiped before being rebuilt or stripped of their materials for recycling to avoid landfill, but it is expected up to 3,500 will be fit for reuse, with at least 1,100 prepared for community distribution in each of the next three years. Carolyn Wilson, chair of Highland council's resources committee said: "We very much welcome this scheme as it provides a remarkable combination of community, environmental and economic benefits, including the creation of direct and skilled employment." In August it was revealed that the council's ICT contract with Fujitsu had suffered delays . According to Highland's resources committee, deadlines to deliver new desktops across the council, ICT equipment to schools and a new data centre had been missed. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.