The teams at local charity DonateIT and Somerset Council’s FIXY project are celebrating another successful tech amnesty at Frome Town Hall. In total, a tonne of devices, cables and accessories was donated on Sunday 2nd February, including 153 phones, 113 laptops, 60 tablets, 20 pc towers and 206kgs of wires, cables and chargers.
DonateIT founder Simon Barfoot said: “It was another successful day at the town hall – many thanks to everyone who brought their unwanted tech down. Most devices have a functional life of about 10 or 12 years, but people are upgrading or ending contracts in four or five, or even sooner. So there’s a product there out there that can still do a job for people, that can get out into the community to someone in need.
“We know people are concerned about data security, so the first and most important thing we do is data destroy. We don’t look at the machines ourselves, we plug them into computers. It’s industry-standard technology – and then you have a perfectly usable, sanitised product. If you have a device you no longer use, please consider bringing it down; you could make a huge difference to someone.”
Cllr Anne Hills of Frome Town Council was at the amnesty to meet the team, said “The DonateIT and FIXY teams do such a brilliant job. The environmental benefit of reusing tech devices is obvious, but it’s more than saving waste. We know that many people in our town feel excluded, or priced out from the digital world, or they can’t afford to replace tech they found really useful. Getting a repurposed smartphone or tablet opens up opportunities and really can change lives.”
The DonateIT team will be in the car park at Frome Town Hall, off Park Road in Frome, from 10am to 1pm on Sunday 8th June, during Great Big Green Week. Find out more about DonateIT at https://donateit.co.uk/. More about the FIXY project is at https://www.somerset.gov.uk/bins-recycling-and-waste/fixy.
