Hold vendors accountable for take-back

Kwirirai Rukowo, Managing Executive of Qrent: Africa and Middle East. (Image: Supplied)

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The IT industry loves its buzzwords – circular economy, sustainability, ESG – but too many organisations still buy and discard hardware without real accountability. They tick boxes and issue statements, yet ignore the one question that defines true responsibility: who takes the equipment back when it’s no longer needed?

Qrent believes in doing more than the easy thing. Yes, it promotes reduce, re-use and recycle. But that alone is not enough. Under the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008, we are bound by Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) – meaning if you supply or refurbish equipment, you must accept the entire life cycle of your product. The burden cannot magically shift from refurbisher (vendor) to end-user (client).

What this means in practice: when a machine becomes obsolete, Qrent takes it back. The company ensures it is not dumped in a landfill, nor allowed to pollute rivers or soil. Qrent tracks it, refurbishes it or responsibly recycles it. The company closes the loop. If your vendor won’t make that commitment, you’re still playing by the old rules of waste and irresponsibility.

Consider this: organisations sign nice contracts, but their vendors walk away when the gear fails or becomes redundant. The client is left with liability, or worse, the hardware ends up in the wrong place. That is not sustainability. That is shifting cost and risk and adversely affecting the total cost of ownership. If you hold the vendor accountable only for delivery, you are playing into a broken model.

Qrent is telling its clients: challenge your vendors. Demand that they demonstrate EPR in action. Insist on life cycle management: from acquisition through to decommission, return, re-use, recycling. If they cannot show adequate processes, metrics, certificates, chain-of-custody, then they are not your partner in sustainability. They are convenience suppliers.

Here is the uncomfortable truth: many vendors are comfortable selling you new gear, collecting revenue and leaving you to deal with disposal. Many clients pay premium for new gear, believe it is safe, but then find the vendor disappears into the sunset when the next refresh cycle begins. The waste piles build. Landfills grow. Waterways risk contamination. That is not innovation. That is negligence.

Qrent's position is unambiguous. It accepts obsolete equipment from its clients through its seamless information technology asset disposition (ITAD) programme. It takes responsibility for ensuring it does not end up in landfill or water. It refurbishes where possible, it recycles where necessary. Qrent documents impact: how many kilos of e-waste prevented, how many device lives extended, how many critical raw materials spared extraction. It does the heavy lifting so its clients can report real progress rather than spin.

If you are in procurement, vendor management or sustainability, ask this: when your vendor says “we’ll handle disposal”, how exactly? Do they guarantee safe decommissioning? Do they show you certificates? Do they take equipment back free of charge? Do they prove they keep it out of landfill and water systems? If not, you are outsourcing risk.

Qrent is raising the bar. Not because it is fashionable but because the company believes moral duty and business sense coincide. The world cannot afford another cycle of buy-use-dump. With regulation tightening, reputations exposed and stakeholders demanding authenticity, the question is no longer “should we?” but “who will step up?”

Let’s be clear: buying refurbished gear is not the full answer if the vendor fails the back-end. Without the take-back and responsible treatment, your good intentions end in a hole in the ground. The vendor that only delivers shiny new or refurbished hardware but leaves its obsolescence unaccounted for is complicit in waste. They are part of the problem.

So here is the challenge to the market:

• We will hold ourselves accountable.
• We will accept the equipment that clients hand back.
• We will refuse to let it become someone else’s problem.
• We will document and report impact.
• We will demand that clients hold their vendors to the same standard.

And to clients: whether you realise it or not, your vendor assessment should include end-of-life. It is not optional. It is not a nice-to-have. If your vendor cannot demonstrate full life cycle responsibility, you are buying into a legacy of waste.

Sustainability is not a label, it is a process, a commitment, a chain of actions. If you buy IT equipment and then look away, you are partially responsible for what happens after. Ask the tough questions. Reject the easy answer. Choose vendors that do more than deliver gear. Choose those that accept the full cost, full responsibility, full life cycle. Our environment, our business and our integrity depend on it.