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How Buying a Refurbished Laptop Can Help the Environment

How Buying a Refurbished Laptop Can Help the Environment

Posted by Team Recompute on 30th Nov 2021

The planet is being polluted and you need a laptop.

These ideas may seem worlds apart but they have more in common than you think. The process of making laptops causes a lot of pollution and at the same time they need for a laptop in school and work settings is on the rise. 

But there is a way to buy an efficient laptop for your everyday life while also helping keep the planet green. Buying a refurbished laptop instead of a new one not only costs less but also helps the environment.

Here is a breakdown of just a few of the reasons why buying a computer that has gone through the refurbishment process will benefit you and the Earth.

Cutting Down Over Buying

The materials needed to build a laptop from scratch are the source of most of a laptop's carbon footprint. Buying a laptop that has gone through the computer refurbishing process cuts down on the pollution caused when new ones get made.

Buying refurbished laptops reduces this cycle and reduces the amount of computers being created to be bought.

Refurbished laptops are the technological version of recycling. Buying a computer that has gone through the laptop refurbishment process assures you get the most out of a product.

Staying Out of Landfills

The world produces a lot of waste and laptops are a part of the electronics filling our landfills. Laptops get made with toxic materials that release into the environment and cause significant harm to the planet.

Laptops are not biodegradable and stay in landfills for a long time. As long as they are there they continue to hurt the environment.

When laptop users decide to have their computers refurbished and those searching for computers decide to buy refurbished, laptops stop filling the landfills and end up on your desk. 

Shrinking Cobalt Use

In order for them to function, batteries made from the mineral cobalt are used in laptops. The energy used to find this material results in a lot of harm to the environment because Cobalt must be mined. When Cobalt is recovered, fumes that endanger the Earth are put into the air.

Cobalt is the main cause of the many ways computers hurt the environment listed before. Cobalt minerals make up most of the pollution caused by laptop production through its recovery and is a dangerous substance in the laptops left in landfills.

Buying a refurbished computer reuses the batteries of already made laptops and stops the continued production of cobalt. 

The Refurbishment Process is the Future

One MacBook you choose to buy after it goes through the apple refurbishing process is one less MacBook created, leaving a carbon footprint, and being thrown into a landfill. 

If you would like to help the environment by buying a quality laptop that has gone through the refurbishment process check out our website.

Are you interested in learning more about sustainability and laptops in the workplace? Be sure to read our blog on the business benefits of sustainability.