GreenTech
A second life for IT assets
The secondary market reduces e-waste, increases the useful life of equipment and stretches budgets.
by Denise DiRamio
From the IT manufacturers'
perspective, the push to "go green" is good
for business, because advances in technology
means replacing network equipment.
Manufacturers are producing a plethora of
power-saving products, encouraging customers
to buy new hardware, even if existing
equipment still works, in order to save
money in energy costs, which does not seem
like an Earth-friendly definition of green
if you consider what happens to most
end-of-life products.
The rapid obsolescence of
network and telecommunications equipment is
the biggest contributor to the growing
supply of electronic waste (e-waste). The
life span of today's IT equipment is growing
increasingly shorter as manufacturers
offer–and customers buy–new equipment to
take advantage of the latest innovations,
retiring tons of still-functioning gear.
"With e-waste being
the fastest growing of all waste
segments, it is critical we do
everything possible to keep electronic
waste out of the landfills," says Chip
Slack, CEO of Intechra, an electronics
recycling company. Most IT equipment
retains value and utility far longer
than the manufacturer-determined life
cycle, so decommissioned assets need not
end up in the landfill or recycling bin.
"Reuse can play a crucial
part in solving the disposal challenge. It's
always better to reuse and extend the life
of equipment than to recycle and have to
manufacture new equipment," Slack says.
"Manufacturers are moving
much quicker than the needs of many
customers," says Frank Kobuszewski, vice
president of technology solutions at CXtec,
provider of new and preowned networking,
voice and cabling equipment.
There is an expanding
market for used networking and
telecommunications equipment, Kobuszewski
says. "Equipment that is obsolete for one
customer is not necessarily obsolete for
others."
A growing number of
electronic equipment resellers buy, sell or
trade preowned networking gear, creating a
viable secondary market for items that would
otherwise end up as e-waste. Mike Sheldon,
president and CEO of Network Hardware Resale
(NHR), says he has seen a significant
increase in the number of companies turning
to the secondary market to buy and sell
network equipment in recent years.
"Today, businesses
realize that the only way to be truly green
is to make sure their unwanted equipment
ends up in someone else's IT shop or in the
hands of an environmentally safe recycler,"
he says.
For equipment that
has no market value, resellers arrange
for environmentally responsible
disposal. Sheldon adds, "Nothing ends up
in the Dumpster."
Selling and
purchasing second-hand equipment via the
secondary market helps conserve valuable
resources, keep unnecessary waste out of
landfills and save money.
A survey conducted by
NHR, a provider of preowned and new
networking equipment, of 400 companies
that purchased network equipment from
secondary market equipment providers,
indicates the top reason for purchasing
secondary equipment is significant
savings over OEM pricing.
CXtec, for example,
buys, refurbishes, tests, certifies and
guarantees the name-brand equipment it
resells, at a savings of 10 percent to
80 percent over OEM prices. Refurbishing
a used product typically includes
testing, data sanitization, cosmetic
restoration and repackaging, and
extended warranty periods have removed
virtually all risks associated with
buying used equipment.
As IT budgets
continue to shrink, enterprises can not
only find bargains by buying preowned
network equipment, "they can sell what
they no longer need, too," Sheldon says,
"which can add a little green to their
bottom line."
Communications News' GreenTech column focuses on a variety of issues concerning the green IT movement.
You can contact Associate Editor Denise DiRamio at
ddiramio@comnews.com.