(This article first appeared in Sustainable Campus No. 6)

The amount of e-waste generated worldwide is growing rapidly. With newer, more powerful programmes emerging faster than ever before, e-devices are becoming obsolete quickly, unable to keep up with their users' programme requirements. Yet, sometimes the unwanted equipment can be put to good use by another user for performing different functions. Take-back, repair and re-distribution are key steps to a successful reuse programme.

In Sep 2014, CUHK completed a one-off exercise to donate written-off office computers to student bodies for reuse. Jointly organized by the Information Technology Services Centre (ITSC), Business Office and Campus Planning and Sustainability Office, a number of office computers rendered obsolete due to the mandatory phasing out of the Windows XP system at CUHK workplaces were made available to student bodies for their society-related work. With ITSC's help, existing data on the computers was removed according to the University's data security requirements, and usable programmes were re-installed on the computers for the student bodies. 9 student bodies supported this reuse project and accepted a total of 20 computers (with monitors and accessories) and 4 standalone monitors.