FAQ

This means that a new electronic device (a device added to the market) is linked to the collection and responsible recycling of an equivalent amount of electronic waste. The waste is collected in countries where formal waste collection is lacking. That means that additional waste reduction is realized. This waste reduction is used to ‘compensate’ the new device.

The service is also referred to as ‘One for One’.

There are several reasons. These include that the service makes your devices better aligned with your company’s values. And it makes the devices more appealing and different than others.
Next to that:

• It offers a perfect first step towards greener/circular use of electronics.
• Makes device use more sustainable, in a risk-free, low cost and effortless way.
• It increases customer or user engagement.
• Positive impact is created in several ways (e.g. carbon reduction, job creation, and many more).
• It’s auditable, proven, NGO supported and award-winning.
• Perfect for communication, employee engagement, and story-telling purposes, as IT devices become positive symbols.

We have over ten years of experience in Europe, the United States, and Asia in implementing waste compensation. Our way of working has been assured and is certified by the leading NGO for sustainable IT certification in 2020. The service is used by large organisations such as Ingram Micro, Vodafone, KPMG, and the Government of the Netherlands.

Our service is simply added to the existing processes and does not require a change of vendors or agreements. 

How does it work?

You buy or sell electronics as you do today.
No need to change your current purchasing, products, or vendors.

For a new phone added to the market, a scrap phone will be collected and recycled. A small fee of a few euros is charged per new phone, tablet, or laptop

Your new phone is triggering the collection of electronic waste. This process will be reported back to you with a certificate as the collection is registered in an auditable supply chain tool called Chainpoint.

Our services are used to make selling (or leasing out) of new devices more sustainable. Those devices can be compensated by collecting scrap phones in Africa on your behalf. We help to turn ‘sustainable’ or  “circular’ tech into something that resonates with your brand, your customers and society, today. And we do this without hassle or risks for our customers. Contact us, and we’ll lay out the process.

You can make your devices more sustainable in several ways. A quick and effective approach is to offset your new device by ensuring the collection and recycling of an equivalent amount of e-waste. We achieve this in a practical, safe, and cost-effective manner by collecting and recycling scrap electronics in emerging markets on your behalf.

Contact us to discuss the process.

Proper collection and management of electronic waste are often lacking in many emerging markets. For instance, when phones reach the end of their life on the African continent, they cannot be properly recycled due to the absence of adequate facilities. In contrast, Europe has five certified facilities capable of handling this task. The e-waste we collect would otherwise not be formally gathered or recycled. This effort allows us to compensate for our customers’ devices by reducing  electronic waste impact.

There is no proper recycling facility on the African continent. Therefore, we ship the mobile phones to the nearest recycling plant, which is in Europe. CTL works with a variety of organizations to ensure local recycling of electronic waste becomes available in Africa.

This is a clear case of a hands-down winner: Shipping the phones is much less polluting. Shipping does generate CO2 emissions, but mining is destructive on many levels, and collecting, shipping, and recycling scrap phones is far less polluting than traditional mining.

Urban mining is the process of converting waste products into new materials, in effect recovering materials that have already been mined or produced before. Traditional or virgin mining has a huge impact on people, it creates environmental damage, and exacerbates climate change, so it should only be done when there are no secondary materials available. IT hardware is packed with useful materials like gold, silver, and copper (see full overview for phones), even if the phone is completely broken. Via urban mining, we can give these metals a new life and prevent the need for even more traditional mining.

The urban mined materials that we as Closing the Loop recover from our collected and recycled e-waste will be offered to the material market for reuse. For example, the recovered materials can be bought by IT manufacturers as they need materials to be able to manufacture new phones. By offering these materials on these markets, we have closed the loop. The materials can also be bought by other manufacturers such as jewellery makers, for example, Nowa

• People in Africa are engaged in profitable and useful jobs including entrepreneurs setting up, small companies collecting, and students working to pay for education. More than 2,000 people are employed in our efforts.
• Landfills are toxic to humans, animals, the air and water. Preventing devices from ending up in landfills is a big achievement with real-life impacts. 

No! Your organization can add our service very easily to your current contracts (with your reseller or other provider). We already work with many of them in the Netherlands and abroad. Our approach is very easy to implement, for your company and for providers/suppliers.

Ensuring your used phones and other devices get a second life is great! This way, others can buy your redundant products for a fair price and their life-span is extended, thus reducing the need for even more destructive mining and extraction of minerals.

CTL’s approach can take you further: we allow you to engage in sustainable procurement. Why is that interesting? Because it allows IT to implement organisational values into its policies, it delivers a highly appealing story, creates more employee engagement, is a great way to get started on circularity, and delivers global impact.

CTL does not handle your used phones ourselves. We never see them. We can help you find the best reuse/disposal partners that provide certified data cleaning.