#Repair #Renew #Buy_long-lasting
How repairs, refurbished sales, repair services, renew and hardware and software optimisations of 93 computers have saved tons of CO2 equivalent. You will find the key numbers in this page.
Some statistics from an ecological point of view
From repairs to selling refurbished computers, from assisting to providing individual courses, during the first 12 months of activity in my new workshop I have seen lots of brands and computer models, often wrongly seen as just good for the dumpster.
Studies published at Greenit.fr show a real advantage in making computers last.
Even a more limited electricity consumption with the latest computers does not beat keeping our old computer and making it last when it can be renovated.
In the above statistics (in French, first image) one can see that there have been 22 computers installed with Linux, 6 computers installed with Windows, 9 computers sold with Linux and 1 computer sold with Windows.
Let’s take only the numbers for the raw materials extracted for the production, but not all the mentioned data in the image above, we get 302 kgs CO2 equivalent per computer, thus 302 x 38 computers = 11476 kgs CO2 equivalent saved from destruction, and as many happy clients!
A larger number of computers has been installed with Linux. The GNU/Linux distributions allow computers to last longer. Some machines were donated and refurbished in the workshop, a few come from specialized providers who refurbish high quality computers issued from companies.
In a small town we need to be versatile. The cleaning of computers is a delicate and meticulous job. Dust is the number 1 enemy of computers!
The “engine” (the Central Processing Unit) produces lots of heat. The dust piles up and gets stuck in the fan and the heat sink meant to guide the heat out. At some point the fan and heat sink can’t do their job anymore and come to be totally filled in, then the computer ends up dying by suffocation or melting some internal components!
In the above image we can read 11 deep cleans on desktop computers and 12 deep cleans on laptops. This is 23 more computers which can continue to be used effectively.
Also in the first two ligns we can read 28 Windows operating systems repaired against 4 Linux systems. I didn’t mention how much time was used : it takes too long to do the maths! However I can say Linux systems don’t need being repaired so often.
This is 32 more computers continuing to do a good job.
Therefore, 32 + 23 + 38 => 93 computers refurbished or second hand sold including desktops and laptops all together.
This sums up about 28086 kgs CO2 equivalent saved during the first 12 months of activity. (taking in account a basis of 302 kgs CO2 equivalent per computer all desktops and laptops included).
Number of computers thrown away in France
On (fr)Planetoscope.com
Nowadays, more than 11 millions french families do not have a computer at home, while one million used computers are sent to the scrapyard by companies each year whereas they can still be used…
According to the General development and sustainable environment Council, France is four to ten times less efficient than it’s European neighbours when it comes to electronics waste collection.
Recover, refurbish, next step is training and assisting the users
30 hours of individual courses under Windows for some and under Linux for others.
Under Linux, 53 hours of internet access, 51 assistances to users, 131 printed documents.
Finally, each client who bought or had a Linux distribution installed to his or her computer benefited a free optional course offered in order to get familiar with their new system and almost all of them have benefited of this offer.