The Circular Economy – It Goes Beyond Recycling

E-waste is one of Australia’s fastest growing waste problems. Over 500,000 tons of e-waste being created every year in Australia and only one third of the total value of materials was recovered. That means that valuable, reusable materials like gold, silver, and copper were sent to landfills where they still sit.

It also means that every year we’re sending toxic and harmful pollutants like cadmium and mercury to landfills, where they pose an environmental risk now and for future generations.

It’s clear that we need to start thinking differently about how we approach the conversation around product lifecycle, waste management, and sustainability, because our current model isn’t working.

In today’s economic model, the focus falls almost entirely on recycling for consumers, corporations, and governments. Recycling is a core part of reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, but it’s meant to be the last step for a product, not the first and certainly not the only step.

So, what’s the solution?

The circular economy is a model of product and consumption that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. In a circular economy, the lifecycle of products is extended – products that would ordinarily be thrown out are refurbished and resold for reuse or striped down for their recyclable and reusable materials which can then be put back into the supply chain for reuse. These resources and materials can be used again and again, creating more value.

Extending the lifecycle of existing products reduces the number of base resources consumed, and new products manufactured. It reduces waste across every aspect of a product’s lifecycle, from manufacture to retirement. This is a change from our current model which is based on a take-make-consume-throw away pattern. Our current model relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy – which leads us back to our original problem of growing e-waste.

At WV Tech, we believe a circular economy is the best system, because it reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and keeps usable materials in circulation. The circular economy isn’t just better for the environment and hitting sustainability targets; it’s also good for business.

For us, that looks like breaking down and recovering valuable, reusable resources from retired and decommissioned IT assets and those resources put back into the supply chain for reuse. It looks like refurbishing and reselling working laptops, extending their lifecycle beyond the 3-4 years they spent in an office.

As an IT Asset lifecycle services company, recovering resources is part what we do. In our facilities, IT assets are broken down, and reusable resources, like gold, silver, copper, and palladium, are recovered to be smelted down and recirculated into the supply chain. Recovering these resources means they can be reused for new products, extending their life, and breaking the cycle of throwing away usable, valuable resources.

In 2025 alone, our teams recovered 6000+ ounces of gold, 25,000 ounces of silver, 4000+ ounces of palladium, and over 200+ tons of pure copper. The gold recovered is more than some Australian gold mines produce in a year.

And what we processed was only a fraction of the e-waste that Australia produced.

Only a third of valuable, reusable resources were recovered from the 500,000 tons of e-waste produced last year – that’s nearly $430m just sitting in landfills.

For us, we see value and opportunity in retired and old IT assets. Monetary value for our partners, domestic and international, and community value in Indigenous job creation as we expand our services and Worldview Foundation programs across Australia.

But we also see a new way of Caring for Country. Our Indigenous team see their work in recovering resources, refurbishing tech, and recycling materials as a way of Caring for their Country.

A core part of the circular economy model is repairing, refurbishing, and reusing.

Some of the laptops that come through our facilities need to be destroyed for security purposes. Others can’t be repaired or refurbished because they’re too old or broken. But what about the laptops and devices that are in good condition and can be reused?

We saw an opportunity in those assets – an opportunity to extend the life of the laptops and computers that come through our facilities.

Once in our facilities, laptops destined for reselling and reuse are graded using the industry standard, from A to F, where A is the highest quality or ‘like new’, and F is the lowest.

For our A and B grade laptops, we created Community Laptops.

Community Laptops is an arm of WV Tech where we sell affordable refurbished laptop packages to RTOs, workforce providers, student union groups, and everyone in between. These laptops are taken from our ex-lease and ex-government stock and refurbished to give them a second lease on life.

For laptops below B grade, we sell wholesale in international markets, where they can be broken down for parts or used for education in lower-income countries.

But it goes beyond just reselling refurbished laptops. As part of our IT asset disposal work, our partners can choose an asset buyback option, allowing them to recover value from retired IT assets with transparent grading, refurbishment, and resale. Asset buybacks allow our partners to offset disposal costs and enable transparent environmental reporting with clear rebates.

Choosing to refurbish and reuse technology is a powerful step towards a more sustainable future. By giving pre-loved laptops a second life through Community Laptops, our wholesale market, and asset buybacks, we’re conserving the precious materials needed to build new devices and significantly reducing the amount of e-waste destined for landfill.