Sustainability

The greenest server is the one that already exists

RecycleVAR is a marketplace where IT resellers, refurbishers and recyclers sell used, refurbished and surplus new equipment to each other. Every part that finds a second owner is a part that does not have to be made again — and one that stays out of the e-waste stream.

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Why reuse matters

Most of a device’s carbon is spent before it is switched on

Mining the metals, making the chips and boards, and shipping the finished product all happen before the first day of use. For laptops, phones, desktops and monitors, manufacturers’ own product carbon footprint reports often put the larger share of lifetime emissions in production. Using a working device for longer — or giving it a second owner — spreads that one-time cost over more years of work.

Sources: published product carbon footprint (PCF) reports from major PC, phone and server makers.

E-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream

The world produced about 62 million tonnes of electronic waste in 2022, and only around 22% of it was documented as properly collected and recycled. The rest was landfilled, burned or handled informally, with the metals inside largely lost.

Source: UN Global E-waste Monitor 2024 (ITU & UNITAR).

Reuse comes before recycling

Recycling recovers some materials, but it destroys the work that went into making the product. That is why waste policy ranks reuse above recycling: keep the product working first, recycle it only at the end of its life.

See the waste hierarchy in the EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC).

The waste hierarchy

1. Prevent — buy only what you need
2. Reuse — resell, redeploy, refurbish RecycleVAR
3. Recycle — recover the materials
4. Recover — energy from waste
5. Dispose — landfill, the last resort

RecycleVAR works on step 2, and connects sellers with certified recyclers for step 3 when equipment really is at end of life.

How RecycleVAR helps

Second owners for used gear

Decommissioned servers, switches, drives and laptops reach buyers who can use them, instead of going straight to the shredder.

Refurbished and spare parts

Refurbishers sell tested equipment, and a hard-to-find spare part can keep an entire system running for years longer.

Surplus new stock, not scrap

Overstock, project leftovers and end-of-line new parts are sold to someone who needs them, instead of being written off and destroyed, and they meet demand that would otherwise be met by new production.

One market, many countries

Buyers post what they need on the Wanted board, so stock that is surplus in one place is found by someone who needs it in another.

124,747

part listings live today

61,999

used, refurbished & open-box units for sale

1,486

IT trading companies listed

countries

Live counts from the marketplace. We do not publish estimated CO₂ savings: we only state what we can count.

Certified Seller

Certified RecycleVAR Sellers

Companies that trade on RecycleVAR can show the Certified RecycleVAR Seller badge on their own website. It tells buyers the company is part of a market that keeps working equipment in use.

Who can show it: companies with a claimed, active profile on RecycleVAR (98 today).
Always live: the badge picture comes from recyclevar.com. If a company stops qualifying, the same badge says “Not currently certified”.
Check any seller: click a badge to open that company’s profile, listings and reviews on RecycleVAR. Companies we have also verified show “✓ Verified”.

The badge shows that a company trades on RecycleVAR. It is not a certificate of data destruction or recycling processes — for end-of-life equipment, ask for R2v3 or e-Stewards certification and a NIST SP 800-88 data sanitization report.

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Sample badges. Yours shows your company name.

Greener IT buying: a short checklist

Ask for refurbished first

For many roles a tested, refurbished server, switch or laptop does the job for less money and none of the manufacturing footprint of a new one.

Sell before you scrap

Retiring equipment? List it or check its value with Instant Valuation before sending it for recycling.

Recycle responsibly at the end

When equipment can’t be reused, use a certified recycler (R2v3, e-Stewards) and get a data sanitization certificate.