HP to sell second-hand kit to firms from new Scottish centre

HP has opened a "technology renewal" centre in Erskine, Scotland to sell second-hand kit to government and enterprise customers. The centre will also be used to refurbish kit and recycle unwanted equipment from any manufacturer.

Owned and operated by HP Financial Services, the company’s leasing and asset management subsidiary, the 8,400 square feet facility will serve customers across the EMEA region.

HP said the facility will help reduce potential e-waste by renewing older IT equipment that would otherwise wind up in landfills.

One organisation that will be using the centre is the States of Guernsey government. “HP has full responsibility for the equipment that we take out of service,” said Paul Sadler, service delivery manager in the education department at the States of Guernsey.

“Without HP’s help we would have to pay to store our decommissioned equipment. HP now handles our old equipment and sees that it enters the recycle stream properly,” said Sadler.

Analyst Gartner estimates more than 120 million PCs will be refurbished, remarketed and reused over the next five years (2012-2016) in the global secondary market, and the HP centre aims to take a slice of this market.

HP Financial Services says it already manages and remarkets more than 2.3 million pieces of legacy kit each year. Kit deemed to have no remaining residual value for resale at Erskine will be recycled.

Earlier this year UK IT charity Computer Aid International expressed "disappointment" at the lack of emphasis on the reuse of technology in an updated version of the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.

The new directive did not include a reuse target, a "significant opportunity that was missed", said Computer Aid, which ships refurbished PCs and other kit to poorer countries.