Unlocking digital inclusion: what comes after the IT reuse for good charter?

The Green Alliance Podcast

Green Alliance

Environment, Uk, Farming, Green Alliance, News, Sustainability, Society & Culture, Government

4.9 • 34 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode explores the government’s new IT reuse for good charter and the broader Digital Inclusion Action Plan, which aim to get unused devices into the hands of those who need them most. The discussion highlights the scale of the UK’s e-waste problem, the persistent digital divide and the critical role of device redistribution in addressing both challenges. Presented by Emily Carr, policy adviser and author of our recent report Making the connection: ending digital exclusion with reused devices, this episode features Stuart Dossett, senior policy advisor and co-author the report; Sam, an asylum seeker whose life was transformed by receiving a donated laptop through Screen Share; Megan Barrett chief executive officer of Power to Connect, a charity working to bridge the digital divide in London through device redistribution and digital skills training; and Natasha Early, business development and partnerships manager at Good Things Foundation, a national digital inclusion charity, responsible for the National Device Bank. Their stories and insights underscore both the life changing impact of digital access and the ongoing barriers like limited device supply, data security concerns and funding constraints that must be overcome to achieve true digital inclusion.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Green Alliance podcast.
0:03.0	We are the charity and think tank dedicated to achieving ambitious leadership for the environment.
0:08.0	I'm Emily Carr, policy advisor at Green Alliance.
0:11.0	Last week was a big moment for digital inclusion in the UK.
0:14.0	The government launched a new IT reuse charter aimed at getting more phones, tablets and laptops into the hands of people who need them.
0:20.0	It's one of the first tangible steps from the Digital Inclusion Action Plan announced earlier this year
0:24.8	and a really welcome sign that action is starting to follow ambition.
0:28.5	Why does this matter?
0:29.7	Well, millions of people across the UK are still digitally excluded,
0:33.2	lacking access to the devices, internet connection and skills they need to participate in everyday life.
0:38.5	At the same time, we're facing a growing e-waste problem, with usable technology often ending up
0:43.3	in the bin rather than being reused. So at the start of this year, we published a report
0:47.4	exploring how better device redistribution could help tackle both these challenges. It's encouraging
0:52.2	to see that many of the themes we raised are starting to gain
0:54.9	traction. From last week's charter to Minister Peter Carl's clear commitment to making progress,
1:00.4	there's plenty of reason for optimism. But there's also room and a need for even more ambition.
1:06.3	Work on a wider circular economy strategy is ticking along in the background, and this is going to
1:10.3	be critical in shaping how we deal with products after the end of their first lives, including
1:14.2	electronics. So the big question for today is, what needs to happen next? To explore that, I'm
1:19.4	joined by some of the people who know this issue best, from the charities working on the ground
1:23.2	to those involved in designing the new charter. But first, to set the scene, I spoke with Stuart Dossett,
1:28.4	senior policy advisor at Green Alliance,
	...

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