Roger

In these changing times many companies are having to think about remodelling, restructuring and possibly Hot desking to cut back on expensive office costs and allow personnel to mix work at home at in the office. This  means that companies are changing from desktop PC layouts to giving staff laptops for a mobile solution. This ultimately creates redundant, servers, PC’s , network switches etc etc. We have been providing I.T Buy-Back services since 1992 and can help companies fund there new I.T strategies buy literally buying their old I.T equipment and allowing them to put the proceeds back into their new laptop/mobile solutions.

As part of our Buy-Back services we arrange the collection and carry out certificated data erasure for your peace of mind

Why not give us a call on 01621-786860 or fill in our online free valuation forms to see how we can help

These days it is becoming increasingly important to cut our carbon footprint. There are lots of guides, hints and tips out there about how to do this in your home; choose A rated appliances, switch to LED lighting, drive an electric or hybrid car, move towards a more plant based diet and decrease your single use plastic.

However there is often one large area of our lives which is overlooked – the office.

There are in fact lots of ways in which your office or other workspace can cut their carbon footprint, so check out some of our top tips below.

Switch to LED lighting

Simply replacing your existing light bulbs and fluorescent strip lighting etc with LED’s can have a huge effect on the amount of energy that is used – sometimes reducing it by up to 1/30th! There is a slightly higher price to pay to install them in the first place, but the reduction on your energy bills alone will have them paying for themselves in no time.

Turn off the lights

The next step to reducing your lighting power bill even further is to turn off lights when they’re not being used. Lights in communal areas such as kitchens, toilets, corridors and stairways are often left on all the time, but this is a huge waste of energy. So the next time that you’ve finished making a cup of tea, turn the light off when you leave.

Reduce vampire energy consumption

Don’t worry, it’s not quite as bloodthirsty as it sounds! Vampire energy consumption refers to the amount of power that is used by electronics that are left plugged in when they are fully charged, or for chargers and power cables that are left plugged in at the mains when they’re not otherwise being used. This pointless use of power is a super easy win when it comes to reducing the energy consumption of your office.

Choose energy efficient computers

Next time you are upgrading your office computers, along with checking speed and power why not also consider how energy efficient they are? These days many computers and laptops are designed with power saving functions in mind. For example, some use extra low amounts of power when in sleep mode, have special power saving modes and use energy efficient power supplies. But it can also be as simple as choosing a laptop with a super long battery life over a desktop which will be plugged in all the time.

If you do decide to move to more energy efficient computers and other electronics in your office, make sure that you also think carefully about what you do with the old ones, as them simply ending up on landfill is actually going to be far worse than you continuing to use them!

Buy IT Back are specialists in green electronics disposal and computer recycling who can even offer you a buy back service for taking your unwanted electronic items away and dealing with them in the most carbon friendly means possible.

To find out more contact Buy IT Back today.

We would like to wish all of our customers, past,  present and future, a very Merry Christmas from everyone here at the Buy IT Back team.

We know that answering the question of what to do with your old or unwanted IT and other electronic equipment is unlikely to be at the forefront of your mind over the festive period – but please give us a thought when everything gets back to normal in the new year!

Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2020 – and here’s hoping that no photocopiers come to any harm at the office Christmas party – but if they do, just give Buy IT Back a call and we can help you to effectively recycle it 🙂

Is it time for you to say goodbye to your dusty server room and move towards mobile, agile cloud based computing?

It’s cheap

Instead of having to cover the costs of running, maintaining and seemingly constantly upgrading your servers and data centres, you can simply hold everything online or in the cloud. Yes you will have to pay for the pleasure of doing so, often as a monthly or yearly subscription, but this will usually work out cheaper, especially if you shop around and maybe even haggle a little.

It’s flexible

In the modern workplace more and more companies and employees are choosing to work in a much more agile manner. Gone are the days of the 9-5 sat at your desk and only ever working from there. By moving to the cloud all you really need is a laptop, or sometimes just a smartphone, and an internet connection and you’re good to go. With a few simple clicks and the odd password, your entire desk is at your fingertips whenever or wherever you are. And with mobile conferencing services such as Skype, Zoom or Hangouts your colleagues can be there too!

It’s scalable

In the old days when your business grew you often had to invest in significant amounts of new hardware to be able to support them. However, by working in the cloud all you need is to buy a couple more licences and a laptop and you’re good to go. This also works the other way too, so if you’re business is going through a rough patch it’s usually quite quick and easy to downsize.

It’s backed up

Traditional IT systems often require complex and often expensive back up plans for your data, with the looming threat that it could all go wrong at any moment. But when you are working in the cloud then that’s where everything stays. Of course nothing is ever 100% safe and perfect, but it is far more likely for your servers to break than Google’s (other cloud providers are of course available!).

It’s got options

By working in the cloud you will have access to a huge range of different software platforms, service providers and cloud computing packages – much more than with traditional servers etc. It seems like these days there is a SaS (Software as Service) solution to any business need that you could ever think of, all of which are usually discoverable with a quick Google search and can often be even further customised to your needs.

So if we’ve got you convinced and it’s time for your business to switch to the cloud, what are you going to do with all of those old servers and other redundant IT equipment?

Buy IT Back has been at the forefront of computer recycling in London and across the UK for over 25 years and not only can we ensure that you unwanted computer equipment is treated with the highest levels of ecological sensitivity, but we can even pay you for the pleasure of doing so!

To find out more contact Buy IT Back today.

The tech industry is one of the fastest moving in the world. With an almost continual stream of updates, new products and the latest must haves, there almost always seems to be a reason to upgrade and get your hands on the newest tech, whether you are a business or a consumer.

However this continuous tide of new products is producing a global crisis in e-waste. The World Economic Forum reports that globally around 50 million tonnes of e-waste are produced annually. That’s the equivalent tonnage in e-waste as all of the commercial aircraft ever produced. And the UK is in the top ten of e-waste producers, along with the USA, France and much of Scandinavia.

So how did we end up in this mess and what can we do about it?

What about repairs?

The repair industry for tech overall forms an incredibly small percentage of the annual turnover, this mainly being because tech is just so difficult, and often expensive, to repair. Apart from taking your cracked mobile phone screen to the little kiosk around the corner, when do you ever send broken electronics for repair? Or do you just give up and buy a new one?

There is currently a move towards considering introducing legislation meaning that some of the less complex electronics, including fridges, lighting and electronic displays, should be made more easy to repair with standard tools, but unsurprisingly this isn’t popular with manufacturers and so could be many years off – and it still doesn’t tackle the issue of many of our more sophisticated tech such as computers, servers, printers and telecoms systems.

Can we recycle more?

This is both a question for manufacturers and consumers. It is estimated that only around 20% of our electronic equipment is fully recycled, with the rest ending up in landfill or the incinerator.

So as consumers we certainly have a responsibility to ensure that our unwanted electronics are recycled, choosing specialist companies such as Buy IT Back to take on any business, corporate or organisational needs. However there is also a large part to be played by manufacturers. Electronics individually tend to use very small amounts of rare metals and minerals, but collectively this adds up to a huge drain on these dwindling finite resources. Up to 40% of the components for new electronics are still being sourced from newly mined resources, but it is estimated that the electronics industry could prevent 1 million tonnes of waste and save 14 million tonnes of CO2 emissions simply by using existing resources more effectively.

Make the right decisions

We have already mentioned the need to use specialist computer recycling companies such as Buy IT Back, many of whom even offer a buy back scheme for your unwanted electronic items, but it is also important to ensure that you are buying from reputable sources too. Challenge the company you are considering buying from to prove what percentage of their items are made up from recycled vs newly mined resources, and try to buy items that may have a longer shelf life than the usual year or two.

To find out more about our recycling credentials (and how we can even pay you for the pleasure of conscientiously recycling your unwanted electronics) contact Buy IT Back today.