We produce too much electronic waste, and its volume increases year by year. The Global E-waste Monitor 2020, the report published annually by the United Nations, confirms what was already in plain sight. 53.6 million tons of electronic waste would be produced in 2019 alone, with an increase of 21% in just five years. If we don’t change something in our consumer habits, by 2030 we will reach 74 million tons by 2030, doubling the amount of electronic waste produced annually in just 16 years. However, what bodes well is that in the last few years the market for refurbished products has also increased, which allow not only to limit the volume of electronic waste, but also the economic and environmental cost associated with the production of new devices.
The UN estimates predict that by 2022, the value of the refurbished market will reach 100 million euros, doubling in just five years. The trend is also confirmed by Refurbed, a startup that deals with regenerated technological products, comparable to new ones in terms of performance. From 2017, the year of its foundation, to today, Refurbed has seen the volume of requests from users double every year. According to the company’s founders, a growing interest in the environment by consumers is on the one hand, and greater and better information about these products on the one hand.
“In most cases, regenerated products offer equivalent performance to new ones, with the further advantage of economic and environmental savings. – Peter Windischhofer, Kilian Kaminski and Jürgen Riedl, founders of Refurbed said – In Italy 68% of consumers would like to have one, yet only 10% have made the purchase. This is due to the fact that there are still many people who are wary about these products, thinking that they can give problems or that they cannot take advantage of warranty and assistance, or they don’t know where to buy them safely”.
Refurbed allows you to approach the world of reconditioned without risk, thanks to the 30-day trial period, the 100% money back guarantee and the minimum 1 year guarantee. “More information is needed on these issues. We realized that, once we understood the real potential of the reconditioned and the services often connected to them, almost all of them declared themselves favorable to the purchase. By conducting a survey among our customers, we found that only 10% of them were in favor of buying refurbished products before getting to know us. Yet almost 100% go back to making other purchases.”
