10 Solar Ideas to Rewire Tech [WEEE for Solidarity - White Paper]
Digital equipment: repair rather than discard, redistribute rather than exclude Four European social and solidarity economy organisations map what works, and chart the path forward.
Across Europe, millions of fully functional computers and smartphones are discarded every year. At the same time, millions of people remain on the wrong side of the digital divide, lacking access to affordable equipment. This paradox (too much electronic waste on one side, too many people left offline on the other) is not inevitable. Solidarity-based reuse offers a concrete and immediate response: by channelling functional devices back into circulation through social and solidarity economy networks, it reduces electronic waste whilst equipping people in a more responsible way. It is precisely around this conviction that the actors of WEEE for Solidarity have come together.
The collaborative European project, WEEE for Solidarity, aims to build a learning community where knowledge, tools and methods flow freely to strengthen local and national digital reuse networks, and make refurbished equipment accessible to everyone, particularly those experiencing digital exclusion. This white paper, The Forever Computer: 10 Solar Ideas to Rewire Tech, is its first public release.
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WEEE for Solidarity is a collaborative European project bringing together social and solidarity economy actors around a common goal: to build a learning community that strengthens local digital reuse networks and makes refurbished equipment accessible to people experiencing digital exclusion. The project is supported by the European Union under the Erasmus+ program (2024–2027).
**Emmaüs Connect:** Emmaüs Connect is a French non-profit organisation fighting digital exclusion since 2013. In 2020, it launched Lacollecte.tech was launched to develop local networks for the refurbishment of IT equipment, based on principles of solidarity and aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged populations.
**Re-Use Austria:** Re-Use Austria is the Austrian reuse and circular economy network, bringing together 47 member organisations. It is a non-profit NGO and a national umbrella organisation for social and charitable organisations active in the field of reuse.
**Ateliere Fără Frontiere:** Ateliere Fără Frontiere is a Romanian social enterprise that creates jobs for people from vulnerable groups through workshops rooted in a climate-resilient economy, including environmentally and socially certified farming, waste collection, refurbishment, upcycling and recycling.
**AERESS** (Asociación española de recuperadores de economía social y solidaria) : The Spanish Association of Social and Solidarity Economy Recovery Organisations (AERESS) is a national non-profit association representing social and solidarity-based organisations specialised in the circular economy and waste management, with a strong focus on labour market inclusion for
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✍️ Contacts : France (coordination) : [email protected] Austria : [email protected] Spain : [email protected] Romania : [email protected]
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