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Hello everyone, I hope this message finds you well. Our school is currently undergoing some essential upgrades to improve our IT infrastructure. We've managed to scrape together a budget to replace 120 classroom computers and upgrade our cabling and Wi-Fi, as we’ve been struggling with outdated equipment that hinders our students' learning experience. Unfortunately, our budget doesn’t extend to cover the cost of new switches, and we mistakenly believed the quotes we received included everything needed. As a result, purchasing new switches would mean reducing the number of new PCs we can order to potentially only 60 or 90, which isn’t ideal. We’re currently using old RM One machines throughout the school, which are simply not suitable for our students' needs. To make the most out of the funding we have, we’re asking for help from this wonderful community. I understand the "Connect the Classroom" scheme has replaced tech in many schools and removed old equipment. Does anybody have any 1GB 24 or 48 port switches from this scheme that they could donate to our school? We would be immensely grateful for any assistance. We’re happy to collect the equipment, pay for shipping, or even arrange to meet at a convenient location (the pub is always a good choice!). Any help would be amazing and greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your generosity and support. Best regards, Vince.

How do you get rid of your waste toners? We used to be paid for ours but now we are looking at paying approx £100 \ 60 litre box which we recon we will fill 2 of every month. Ideally we'd like to avoid them going straight to landfill. Chris

Hi, Our school is finally replacing 60+ printers for a fleet of 10 MFD managed printers. I am wondering if anyone here knows of a legal way of selling these older printers to save some money for the school rather than just scrapping them or donating them to a charity. The business manager is worried that we cant sell them on ebay for example, as this may affect our funding rights (as printers were bought without VAT) or be classed as fraudulent, so is wondering if there is any legitimate avenues for selling these onto a third part company (Midlands area). Even if it generates £10-£20 per device that would be something the school could use to put back in for our students. Any advice or info greatly received.

Evening, A big thanks to John Graham at ICT Direct (a forum sponsor) for quickly providing a quote yesterday for a large number of machines which we ordered today. Excellent service and machines arriving next week. Recycled machines is the way forward everyone. So thanks John @ictdirect. Gareth

From my initial communications with them, they are using Blancco software are fully GDPR compliant and have confirmed they securely transport devices to their facility. https://www.satcol.org/data-destruction

This is a 12.5" dell 7290 a new panel is £70 and well that puts it beyond economical repair. The LCD panel that is in this picture however is a 13.3" panel from those broken DFE covid laptops (a dynabook) Were not quite there yet but thanks to the 30pin embedded display port we might get more choice in the future and save more devices from the bin.. if this was my personal laptop I'd double tape the screen on and use it

Very large 16-18 school looking for a new recycling contract which is of mutual benefit to your company and ours. We have large quanitites of IT materials to be recycled and in return are looking for a usable IT suite for our technology dpt base stations and TFT monitors minimum specification dual core 2gb ram or better. At present considering becoming a base for recycling from our feeder schools. Very attractive PR package as our partners. Please PM me with details