Circular IT: better for the planet, better for business

Technology now rivals aviation for emissions, and AI is accelerating it

of global greenhouse gas emissions come from information and communication technology, at least 1.7% and more than international aviation.

the electricity data centres are expected to use by 2030, more than double the 415 TWh they used in 2024, with AI the main driver.

of a laptop's lifetime carbon footprint is created before it's ever switched on, during manufacturing.

Most of a device's footprint comes from making it. So the biggest lever is simple: make fewer new devices, and keep the ones we have for longer.

Carbon footprint by device

For laptops, tablets and phones, three-quarters or more of the footprint comes before they're switched on. Even for always-on screens, making them is the biggest share. Transport and end of life barely register, so the carbon win comes from not making new devices, not from recycling old ones.

Every device is made from the earth, and the earth is finite

China is the leading refiner for 19 of 20 strategic minerals, with an average market share of around 70%.

Magnets make up around 95% of rare earth use by value. Demand for the rare earths that go into them has doubled since 2015, and is set to grow by another third by 2030.

Today, only around 1% of rare earth demand is met by recycling e-waste. The IEA estimates recycling could cut the need for newly mined supply by up to 35% by 2050.

When supply is concentrated, it can be switched off

In 2025, China restricted exports of rare earths and the magnets made from them, and some carmakers had to pause production. Applied in full, the IEA estimates USD 6.5 trillion a year of production outside China would be at risk.

Harder to mine

Copper ore is now around a tenth of the purity it was a century ago. A single smartphone needs around 1,000 times its own weight in raw materials and water to make.

The cost you can't see

Much of the world's tantalum and cobalt comes from the DRC, where mining has been linked to conflict and child labour. Every device kept in use is one less that needs these materials dug up.

From raw materials to the parts inside your laptop, prices are rising. Demand from electric vehicles, power grids, solar panels and AI data centres plays a part, and gold and silver are also driven by investors, as well as by supply.

the rise in memory (DRAM) prices from the start of 2024 to the end of 2026, as forecast by J.P. Morgan.

Gartner's forecast rise in PC prices in 2026, compared with 2025.

Apple raised Mac prices, citing higher memory and storage costs.

The world's fastest-growing waste stream

unused devices are sitting in UK homes and businesses, and 267 million of them could be repaired or reused. At an average of £150 each, that's around £69 billion of tech sitting idle.

of e-waste were generated worldwide in 2022, up 82% since 2010, and on track to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030.

of it was formally collected and recycled.

The UK produces the second-highest amount of e-waste per person in the world, at around 24kg each a year.

Recycling is the last resort, not the answer

Recycling is better than landfill, but it's not as green as it sounds. When a working device is shredded, all the energy and materials that went into making it are lost, and many materials can't be recovered at all.

Shredding a working laptop shreds the energy it took to make it.

Most of the material in collected e-waste is lost during recycling, an estimated 57%.

No smartphone has ever been made from 100% recycled materials. You can't make a new phone from an old one.

Of the 30-plus metals in a phone, around half have functional recycling rates below 50%.

Most of us don't need the newest tech. We need the right tech.

For decades, each new generation of hardware brought big leaps in performance, so replacing devices often made sense. That's changed. As chip improvements slow and hardware matures, today's devices have far more power than most people use day to day. Consumers already know this, and they're keeping their phones and laptops for longer than ever.

Consumers are keeping tech longer

People hold on to phones and laptops for longer, because a few-year-old device still does everything they need.

Businesses are still hesitant

In business, reuse has lagged behind, for two reasons: worries about cyber security (what's on a used device, and where has it been?) and worries about reliability (will it let my team down?).

We keep technology in use

An estimated 10–15% of tech sold is returned, often just because someone changed their mind, and more sits unsold in warehouses, waiting for a home. Our mission is to put that tech to work, alongside unused devices from consumers and businesses, by giving it a second life in businesses that need it.

Every device moves through the same loop: sourced, tested, supplied, kept running for as long as possible, then securely recovered and given its next life.

Buying new can still be circular

Sometimes only new will do. What matters is what happens next: every device we supply, new or reused, follows the same circular pathway, across your whole IT estate.

Circular makes business sense

Reused devices where they fit, longer working lives and value recovered at the end can save up to 60% on hardware spend, while cutting carbon.

The tighter the loop, the more value you keep

Circular economy thinking, championed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, puts repair and reuse at the centre because they keep the most energy and materials in use. Each loop maps to a Klyk service:

Tech that heals itself, and lasts longer

Most devices aren't replaced because they're broken, but because they feel slow. Resolver AI spots what's hogging memory and processing power and frees it up, so devices stay fast for longer, without being replaced.

Self-healing

Resolver spots what's slowing a device down and frees up memory and processing power, with the user's OK.

Always watching

It keeps an eye on CPU, memory, storage, battery health and how often devices are restarted, across your whole fleet.

Upgrade only when it's needed

When a device is genuinely holding someone back, the data shows it, so you upgrade or reallocate instead of replacing by default.

Every extra year a device stays in use spreads its manufacturing footprint further. Research suggests keeping corporate laptops just one year longer can cut related emissions by up to 25%.

Built to be upgraded. Fixed when it breaks.

Upgrades: it starts with what you buy

As AI and software get more demanding, your team will need more memory. Devices with memory soldered to the board can't be upgraded, so they end up replaced.

Repairs: our own engineers, genuine parts

When something breaks, our own repair engineers fix it, using genuine parts only.

Circular tech, with no compromise on performance or security

Reused tech only works for business if it's as reliable and as secure as new. So we've built every step around giving you that confidence.

As good as new. As secure as new.

Performance you can rely on

Security you can trust

We measure it, so you can report it

Every Klyk customer gets carbon tracking for their whole IT estate. We measure the carbon saved by every reused device we supply, every device we keep running for longer, and every device we recover. You see the carbon footprint and savings for each device, and the total for your whole organisation, so you have real figures for your sustainability and ESG reporting, not guesswork.

The circular IT guide: a short PDF expanding on these five steps.