Irish Government signs framework agreement for the purchase of remanufactured laptops

GPP really can drive the circular transition!

The Irish Government has just signed a framework agreement for the procurement of remanufactured laptops, meaning that any public body can purchase some of these laptops through it. It’s the first time that an EU Member State has implemented this type of GPP procedure.

And this is not a small “well, it’ll look good’ contract: it will run for four years and is worth EUR 30 million. Thanks to this contract, around 60 000 laptops will be bought remanufactured rather than new – about 12% of Ireland’s laptop market.

Circular Computing will be supplying the remanufactured laptops. They know what they’re doing in this field: their remanufactured laptops are guaranteed by the BSI Kitemark standard for “Remanufacturing”, so there’s no doubt that they will work at least as well as new.

These laptops will be remanufactured, not refurbished. Remanufacturing involves entirely taking apart discarded laptops, cleaning and testing the parts before using them to build new products. Refurbishing is not such a thorough process and does not offer the same guarantees.

There are a lot of advantages to buying remanufactured laptops:   

• The remanufacturing process does not require the huge amount of resources that new builds do and it drastically reduces the amount of ewaste generated.
• It’s estimated that over the duration of the contract, the decision to opt for remanufactured over new will reduce CO₂ emissions by 19 million kg, preserve 72 million kg of mined resources and save 11 billion litres of water.
• It’s in line with the EU Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Irish Government’s GPP strategy
• And if you need a more short-term benefit, it’s cheaper: these laptops work out to about 30% cheaper than buying new!

The Irish Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement and circular economy Ossian Smyth TD, said that “The public sector now has a way to buy remanufactured laptops from a trusted source, saving money and avoiding waste. This is a change from previous rules that advised always to buy new products. I’m delighted to see this progress.” Aren’t we all!