Taking back our own electronic waste is an obligation, not charity
Telecom generates enormous quantities of e-waste and India recycles very little of it safely. We should not get credit for cleaning up after ourselves.
Second Life collects end-of-life electronics from companies, refurbishes what can be reused for our device libraries, and sends the rest to certified recyclers.
We are careful about how we describe it, because it would be easy to describe it dishonestly.
The uncomfortable framing
Our parent company is in telecom. Telecom generates a great deal of electronic waste. India recycles a small fraction of its e-waste through formal channels; a large share is stripped by hand, informally, by people who are poisoned doing it.
An organisation funded by a telecom company, taking back telecom waste, is not performing an act of generosity. It is meeting an obligation that the industry has been slow to meet.
What the programme actually does
Collection with certified data destruction. Reusable machines refurbished into device libraries, where a child who has no computer at home can borrow one. Everything else to certified recyclers, with a certificate returned to the donor.
Sixty-two tonnes so far, and 4,300 devices given a second working life.
Why we still do it
Because the alternative is worse, and because the refurbishment side genuinely helps: a device library is one of the cheapest ways we have found to get practice hours to children who would otherwise get none.
We just do not think it belongs in a section headed "our generosity".
