Plugged In - our IT Recycling Project

Background

Our IT recycling project has been running since the pandemic. We gave out our first recycled IT package in May 2020.

At the beginning of the pandemic, our members told us that people they worked with were struggling to work, live and teach their families as they had no or limited IT and internet. From this, the project was born. We asked members, families and friends to donate unwanted IT equipment and members to refer people to receive them.

We initially set up the IT Recycling Project in partnership with Gift Tech and Glasgow Clyde College. Old IT equipment was wiped and installed with software by experts from  the college. Members were able to refer people to receive this new recycled/refurbished equipment.

Today, the network runs Plugged In and continues to take donations of IT equipment and referrals, from member organisations and partners in North West and North East Glasgow, for FREE refurbished IT equipment and wifi for people and families you work with in your community. 

We recently received funding from Glasgow City Council Low Emission Zone Community Support Fund and are delighted to now be able to have a full time technician and expanding what we do into North East Glasgow. Find out more

Referrals

We have PC packages ready to give out. Each PC package contains a PC tower, monitor, mouse, keyboard, web cam and a ‘How to’ guide. We can also include free internet with our packages.

We also take referrals for laptops, tablets and mobile phones - please note there can be longer waiting times for these items (4-6 weeks).

We ask that all Referrer organisations read our Referrer Information Sheet before making a referral. If you have and questions, you can call or email Martina or Matthew on 07386 217433 or hello.northwestglasgowvsn@outlook.com or matthewpluggedin@outlook.com

Please use this referral form to make a referral request for an IT package.

   

IT Donations

Thank you for considering our project for a donation, we really appreciate all donations large or small.  Devices make a big difference to recipients, allowing them to study, look for work, keep in contact with friends & family etc.  The project is completely reliant on the donation of IT equipment to fulfil the requests. We are lucky enough to now receive regular donations from all sources, but demand remains extremely high so are always looking for more. If you wish to donate IT equipment, please get in touch by completing the IT Donation Form below and we will be in touch to arrange drop off. In some cases we can collect but as we are a small team this isn't always possible. 

Please us this IT Donation Form to donate your unwanted IT equipment.

What we can take:

• Laptops ( we can take all laptops - if we can't repair or refurbish them - we will wipe and ethically recycle them)
• Desktop PCs (Less than ten years old)
• Tablets (Must be without password and factory reset)
• Smartphones (Must be without password and factory reset)
• Optical USB or Wireless Mice
• USB or Wireless Keyboards
• Monitors (Must be working)
• HD Webcams
• WiFi Dongles, or MiFi boxes (SIM Powered routers)
• Three Pin Power Cables
• VGA Display Cables
• Tablet and Phone chargers (All varieties)
• Hard Drives (SSD or Spinning Disk)

Security

All donated PCs and laptop equipment is data wiped, and certification of this can be provided on request. A certificate is provided for each individual item once wiped when requested. The method we use to do this is Redkey Data Destruction. This software performs a full data wipe of IT equipment to industry standards and in line with regularity requirements outlines in GDPR. The software wipes the disk completely of all saved data and Operating System leaving a completely clean drive. Redkey has also been awarded ADISA industry certification. All our refurbished IT equipment is also PAT tested for electrical safety.