An enormous amount of CO2 is released into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels around the world.
Scientists now agree that this is causing climate change, and the results are already visible in many places on our planet
IT-recycling decided to measure its impact on CO2 emissions. On the one hand, our business activities cause CO2 emissions, mainly due to road traffic.
On the other hand, we also reduce CO2 emissions by recycling computer equipment. Recycling emits less CO2 than production using new raw materials does.
IT-recycling therefore emits CO2, mainly from road traffic, but on the other hand reduces CO2 emissions.
The purpose of this CO2 footprint is firstly, to gain insight into our CO2 footprint.
We will do a calculation every year. We started doing this in 2013, so we have been doing this for 10 years now. The year 2021, we very carefully started using BLUE diesel in some cars – namely the small diesels we have, a passenger car and a van. This is 30% blue diesel that is, 70% mineral diesel and 30% diesel of vegetable origin. At the end of 2021, we got an accountability from the manufacturer based on litres tanked. As a result, our small diesel engines emitted 27% less co2 and on the overall CO2 emissions, the reduction was a 4%. In the year 2022, our trucks started running on blue diesel 100% – this is of vegetable and not fossil origin. In this calculation, we assume that driving on plant-based fuel gives a co2 reduction of 90%. On this page, you will only see a summary of this calculation. On request, we will send the full calculation with explanations.
CO2 footprint over 2022
| CO2 emissions | 2022 |
|---|---|
| CO2 emissions from road traffic corrected by use of blue diesel | 22 tons |
| Emissions from office and workshop in Uden Total CO2 emissions in 2019 | 3 tons |
| Total CO2 emissions in 2022 | 25 tons |
The majority comes from trucks used to collect computer waste and take scrap metal to recycling companies.
Reduce CO2 emissions by recycling unwanted computers
| 2022 | Figures |
|---|---|
| Amount of computer material collected in 2022 | 645 tons |
| CO2 emissions if for all this depreciated computer equipment you produce new ones from raw materials | 12916 tons of CO2 |
| Reduction of CO2 emissions through recycling (25%) | 3229 tons of CO2 reduction |
| Total emissions of CO2 | 25 tons of CO2 emissions |
| Negative footprint for 2019 | 3204 tons |
IT recycling thus reduces CO2 by 3204 tonnes over the year 2022.
For every kilo of CO2 we emit, we ensure a reduction in CO2 emissions of 125 kilos.
Improvements to our CO2 footprint
As mentioned, the biggest CO2 emitters are trucks. By 2022, trucks will have driven (almost) all their kilometres on blue diesel 100%. The smaller diesels have driven on a mixture of fossil and vegetable. A single large petrol truck emitted no less than 11 tonnes of co2 in 2022. For environmental reasons, this car was replaced by our first all-electric vehicle by the end of 2022. This will certainly impact the footprint over 2023. Furthermore, we replaced a Diesel-guzzling Volvo for a modern extremely fuel-efficient Hybrid. In the table below, you can see that the switch to plant-based fuel really has a huge effect on our co2 footprint.
Historical data period 2015-2022
Numbers of tonnes (1,000 kg) CO2: ratio between our emissions and CO2 savings.
| Year | CO2 emissions | Computer waste | Footprint | CO2 number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 25 | 645 | -3204 | 125 |
| 2021 | 77 | 587 | -3012 | 37 |
| 2020 | 74 | 482 | -2339 | 32 |
| 2019 | 78 | 492 | –2301 | 30 |
| 2018 | 74 | 529 | –2571 | 35 |
| 2017 | 65 | 481 | –2430 | 36 |
| 2016 | 59 | 348 | –1683 | 29 |
| 2015 | 59 | 400 | –1940 | 32 |