Information technology (IT)

Municipal and federal governments spend between two-four percent of operating budgets on information technology. Worldwide, $1 trillion US is spent every year generating more than fifty million tonnes of waste that is disposed of in landfills, which is equivalent to 800 laptops every second. 

Consumption of electronics also creates one of the most rapidly growing waste streams. According to the United Nations statistics on SDG 12, e-waste generation in Europe and North America increased from 15 kg to 17.5 kg per capita between 2010 and 2019. Production of IT is equally detrimental because it is resource-intensive and requires continuous mining of virgin resources. 

Eighty percent of the smartphone’s greenhouse gas emissions, for example, comes from production; 16 percent from customer use; three percent in transport; and one percent in recycling. In addition to greenhouse gases, electronics contain harmful chemicals like mercury, brominated flame retardants, and arsenic, which build up in our bodies and can cause severe consequences to human health. 

Public sector procurers and suppliers realize the need to change IT’s linear pattern to focus on retaining the value of resources, using waste as production inputs, and extending the life of IT products. By purposefully applying circular principles like reuse, repair, recyclability, or resale into procurement requirements, the amount of material lost to disposal is reduced, and existing resources are reintegrated into production cycles to create demand for circular business models like circular supplies, resource recovery, and product life extension.