When we talk about the Circular Economy, we often talk about resources, products, lifecycles and recycling. This is all true, but sometimes we forget the human opportunities a more circular economy brings.
Our Time After Time fund (in partnership with the fantastic team Hubbub) provides grants to 8 projects across the UK that support device repair, refurbishment and the rehoming of devices to people who need them.
A key part of these projects is showing people that technology can be used for longer than we think, it can have a second, third or fourth life. The fund also supports people to develop skills in repair and refurbishment, skills that will be vital as we transition to a green economy. 💚
As a business we recycled, refurbished, resold and repaired 2.4m devices last year. The refurbished handset market is growing (according to GfK 25% of all UK mobile phone sales in 2023 were for 2nd hand or refurbished handsets, ➕ 6% from 2019) so there's a huge opportunity and I can't wait to take learnings and see how these projects progress over the next 12 months. 📱
Meet the winners of this year’s Time After Time fund – our initiative with Hubbub to award a share of £500,000 to innovative projects which tackle e-waste and support digital inclusion.
The eight winners below were selected by a judging panel including TV presenter & environmentalist, George Clarke, Material Focus, Good Things Foundation, Hubbub and our own employees.
Read more about the impact these projects will have in transforming communities by giving tech a second life: https://vmo2.co/3ytlGyq
#TimeAfterTime #EWaste #DigitalInclusion
