Humanity’s reliance on electronics to navigate their day-to-day lives has resulted in the production of 20 million to 25 million tons of global electronic waste (e-waste) per year — an environmental and health hazard that has the potential to worsen climate damage.
E-waste refers to electronic devices that are thrown away rather than reused or recycled. Common sources include laptops, mobile phones, televisions, and batteries — items that are used across nearly every individual’s daily life.
Globally, less than one-fifth of electronic waste is properly collected and recycled. But over the past 20 years, companies have been looking for ways to meet customer needs and reduce enterprise waste. Networking hardware giant (and TD SYNNEX vendor) Cisco was one of the first to launch a product refurbishment program in 2001 — now known as Cisco Refresh — to tackle this issue.
At the time Cisco was a pioneer IT player thinking about their equipment’s end-of-life and strategizing for a more sustainable future, but now vendors, distributors, and customers at every level of the channel are joining in–by adopting a circular economy.
Circular Economy 101
To understand how to be a part of the circular economy, you must first understand what it is: an economic system designed to keep materials in use, eliminate waste, and regenerate natural systems.
It’s a closed loop framework intended to challenge the standard, linear flow of product life cycles, in which raw materials are collected, transformed into products, used by consumers, and then disposed (otherwise known as the take-make-waste economy).
In a circular economy, waste does not exist and raw materials are (designed to be) reused as long as possible, over and over again. Instead, waste becomes the new “raw material” — reframed as a potential resource or input into something else — rather than something to throw away.
Products are kept in circulation through processes such as reuse, repair, remanufacture and recycling. While, colloquially, “recycle” has been prioritized according to existing waste management practices, the truth is in the new circular economy vision it becomes the option of last resort.
The goal, first and foremost, is to extend a product’s life cycle by finding ways to reuse it. Interestingly, transitioning to this regenerative model–where “reuse” is at the top of the hierarchy–can create economic activity in the areas of product innovation, remanufacturing, and refurbishment.
The Circular Economy & IT: A Marriage of Purpose and Profit
And, that’s exactly what’s happening in the IT business partner ecosystem.
In 2022, 1.3 billion mobile devices reached their first end-of-life — half of which remain in drawers or were thrown away. Had those smartphones been given a second life, emissions associated with production and end-of-use could have been reduced by 82%.
That gap leaves enormous opportunity for environmentally conscious companies to drive toward sustainability goals and develop new areas of business around product regeneration.
The proof is in the numbers.
The circular economy for second-hand smartphones generated $13.3 billion revenue in 2021 alone, and that dollar amount is set to grow as large companies begin to invest in trade-in and refurbishment services.
What’s more? Consumers across the country and customers within the channel are also becoming more sustainability-oriented, often opting for environmentally friendly products (even if it means paying more) — giving businesses a chance to step in and provide more value to stakeholders.
And, with the rapid growth of “upgrade culture” in which people seek out the most up-to-date technology (even if their current devices are in working condition), there is even greater opportunity for the channel to tap into unmet demand through trade-in programs.
By aligning with consumer behaviors and tastes in this way, businesses can provide environmentally conscious customers with an easy way to participate in the circular economy while also driving revenue — a win-win for all involved.
The E-Waste Problem
According to the United Nations, e-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste problems on the planet. Without intervention, they predict that e-waste will grow to nearly 75 megatons worldwide by 2030 and as much as 110 megatons by 2050.
“E-waste is doubling every eight years,” says Manuel Aguirre, Global Sustainability Manager at TD SYNNEX. And, if we don’t take action soon, “the planet is well on its way to looking like Pixar’s Earth in the film, WALL-E,” he warns.
Short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class, WALL-E is a robot that spends his days roaming an Earth absent of human life, and covered with mountains of garbage. In his scenario, waste has physically forced humans off the face of the planet.
But, as central as the IT channel is to technology creation, it also has the opportunity to make the biggest impact in reducing electronic e-waste and the emissions associated with production and end-of-use by embracing the circular economy.
TD SYNNEX and The Circular Economy
At TD SYNNEX, we’re advancing the circular economy by leveraging our unique close relationships with 1,500+ vendors and 150,000+ customers.
For most of our partners, TD SYNNEX is the biggest, best-resourced company in their ecosystem, making us the first place they turn to for help with large-scale, logistics-intensive projects.
Plus, we’re the largest IT distributor in the world, meaning we’ve built a comprehensive network of vendors upstream and customers downstream–leaving us uniquely positioned to intervene in the current linearity of e-waste management in favor of a circular model.
Simply put, we saw the opportunity to help our partners reach their own sustainability goals while capitalizing on our own–and we took it.
Currently, TD SYNNEX is driving towards a circular IT economy in three major ways:
ESG Framework
In 2021, we conducted a materiality assessment to get a better understanding of what the material issues are in our ecosystem and to identify areas of opportunity from a sustainability perspective. That work empowered us to create a more targeted, operational ESG strategy, including establishing areas of specialization within the company to address and manage issues related to the circular economy. This team–composed of both sustainability experts and other internal program experts (i.e. transportation & logistics)–is leading our efforts to collectively minimize waste by maximizing the long-term value of our products.
Awareness and education
Through training and education around sustainability, we’re making it easier than ever before for partners to get involved. In 2022, we launched a module-based sustainability training program including an in-depth course around circular economics. The goal: to provide thought leadership to partners in our channel so they are better equipped–and more likely to–adopt the circular economy.
Circular business
We currently have three business units offering IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) services to our customers: PCW, Shyft Global Services and TD SYNNEX Trade-In. The activities they are performing (redistributing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, etc.) depends largely on the type of device, geography and vendor agreements. For example, through our mobile trade-in program TD SYNNEX Renew, we collected 350,000 mobile handsets in 2022 alone that otherwise may have ended in landfill in large numbers (more than 80% according to e-waste statistics).
Looking Ahead: The Circular Economy As A Solution to the Scarcity of Resources
For TD SYNNEX, advancing the circular economy is not for show–not simply there to satisfy arbitrary ESG targets or to build better brand perception.
Embedding circular economy principles into our product life-cycle management strategy is one of the core tenets of our corporate citizenship initiative. It’s part of our long-term strategy, our roadmap. Now, sustainability is ingrained in our company culture and the circular economy is a regular part of our corporate vocabulary — often a high-priority agenda item in executive strategy meetings.
We saw a very real need within the industry — within our network — and are now delivering products with even more value to our partners. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to align business goals with corporate citizenship and ESG goals.
And, that need is only going to increase in the future.
As climate change worsens–and continues to threaten global ecosystems — it’s putting a strain on access to materials and resources, tightening the supply chain. Supply sourcing tensions with the world’s major material providers (i.e. China) are expected to intensify as resources become more scarce.
The circular economy is not simply about opportunity for businesses, it’s about survival.
Embracing a circular economy today is a way to bulletproof your organization against future geopolitical upheaval that restricts the supply of raw materials. It’s a very real solution to the intensifying scarcity of resources.
For all these reasons, the circular economy is not just about doing good by doing well; it is also a sound business opportunity and a solution to the scarcity of resources, and the work starts now.
