Old phones, laptops and broken electronics clutter UK landfills – but one Bolton organisation has been fighting this ‘e-waste’ crisis for three years. In that time, Recycle-IT! has saved 30 tonnes of discarded parts from the tip – using them to build affordable computers and phones for ‘digitally excluded’ people. And now, it has a new location in Market Place Shopping Centre.
Recycle-IT! started as many great enterprises do – out of a basement. John Hastings, its founder, said: “All we had was a laptop, a bench, £250 and the belief that digital technology shouldn't have to cost the earth”. John was a former offender in the 2000s with 19 convictions to his name.
By the time he founded the company, he had turned things around. John Hastings (Image: Newsquest) He said: “Some years ago, I had an epiphany to stop making the wrong choices. “And that every single one of my actions start with a thought.
“It helped quiet my mind and start to sort things out. “Before the pandemic, I had been a support worker for people with autism and disabilities. "But then I was furloughed and let go.
“I had learned about Recycle-IT!, which had been socially franchised in 2006. “And jumped at the chance of bringing it to Bolton . Recycle-IT!'s new location in Market Place (Image: Newsquest) “Computers were something I always loved.
I took apart my first when I was 11, a ZX Spectrum.” Recycle-IT! had begun in Luton in 1995, and John decided to revive it here as a CI.
