Throwing out your old computer? Sujan has a better idea

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In a small, brightly lit workshop, Sujan Selven and his workforce are busy restoring undesirable computer systems for donation to native households.

Selven is the founding father of Upcycled Tech, a social enterprise that goals to assist get extra faculty college students on-line, particularly these from deprived households.

“In Australia, though we’re a developed nation, there are various households with no entry to gadgets,” says Selven, 38.

“When college students haven’t got entry outdoors the classroom, they usually fall behind at college. So, a second-hand pc helps with their homework, analysis and assignments.”

A man in a white t-shirt sits at a desk repairing a second hand computer.

A volunteer restoring a used pc on the workshop. Supply: SBS / Spencer Austad

It is a view backed up by analysis. A current KPMG report discovered that 84 per cent of scholars with insufficient entry to a pc (outdoors the classroom) struggled to complete class work and assignments.

Selven’s workforce upgrades discarded know-how. Many gadgets are donated by small companies or charities.

Tamil neighborhood volunteer Viji Dhayanathan says for refugee and asylum seeker households, the present of know-how might be life-changing.

A woman in a blue and white striped shirt holds up a laptop.

Viji Dhayanathan is a Tamil neighborhood volunteer. Supply: SBS / Spencer Austad

“Most kids at the moment are utilizing laptops to do their research. However in lots of households, mother and father simply cannot afford to purchase three or 4 laptops if they’ve three or 4 children.

“With no system, they can’t sustain with their research or do their homework like different youngsters.”

Selven additionally grew up with restricted know-how, in a distant space of northern Sri Lanka.

He was born right into a Tamil household in 1985 in Vanni district, throughout that nation’s bitter civil struggle.

A man in a multi-coloured shirt sits at a computer.

Sujan Selven at his Sydney workplace. Supply: SBS / Spencer Austad

“We didn’t have entry to electrical energy, not to mention a pc. For a lot of my childhood, we had been hiding in bunkers.

“The air drive would bomb the Vanni space, and a variety of faculties had been [hit]. A lot of my faculty associates had been killed throughout the struggle,” he says.

Selven arrived in Australia together with his household in 2000, and later labored carefully with different refugees. It was then he started on the lookout for a option to give again.

“I am alive and I survived, and I believe I’ve a duty to do one thing.

“So, once I discovered in regards to the [digital divide] I made a decision to deal with that, to assist clear up that downside.”

A man in a white t-shirt reaches across a desk as another man looks on.

Saif Al-Yousuf and Sujan Selven (standing) restoring a pc. Supply: SBS / Spencer Austad

His enterprise now helps native households in Australia and can also be making a distinction in his homeland, Sri Lanka.

“In distant areas of Sri Lanka, lower than 20 per cent of the inhabitants has entry to gadgets. Web connectivity is even decrease,” he says.

“College students in Sri Lanka usually share one to 2 computer systems between round 30 college students. We’ve got given some faculties 15 computer systems per classroom,” he says.

“And that is in three provinces – north, east and south. To date, we’ve donated a couple of thousand gadgets.”

Sri Lanka is progressively rising from a extreme monetary disaster throughout which inflation peaked at 70 per cent.

That led to mass protests, with tens of millions affected by meals, medical and gas shortages.

Amongst Sri Lankans to learn from Upcycled Tech donations is Lathukshan, a robotics and pc science scholar.

“Studying was powerful earlier as we had solely two computer systems. Because the laptops had been donated, studying has turn out to be a lot simpler,” he says. “So, thanks for these gadgets.”

Used cables and computers stacked against a white wall.

Digital waste able to be upcycled. Supply: SBS / Sandra Fulloon

However Selven is doing greater than donating know-how to Australians and Sri Lankans.

Recycling is an efficient option to cut back the 200-thousand tonnes of computer systems and different digital or ‘e-waste’ despatched to landfill every year.

CEO of PlanetArk, Rebecca Gilling, Australia generates 531,000 tons of e-waste yearly.

“E-waste is likely one of the quickest rising areas of waste globally, and Australia cuts properly above its weight,” she says.

“In response to the Nationwide Waste Report of 2022, which is the latest knowledge all of us have, the typical Australian produced in extra of 20 kilograms of e-waste.

“That’s far in extra of the worldwide common, which is round seven kilos per individual per 12 months,” she says.

Male hands hold up a section of a computer.

Restoring a discarded pc. Supply: SBS / Spencer Austad

“In 2020-21, about 54 per cent of the e-waste that we generated was despatched for recycling, and of that, about 35 per cent of supplies had been recovered. So the remainder sadly went into landfill.

Australians purchase nearly 5 million new computer systems yearly, and tens of millions of outdated, undesirable computer systems are despatched to landfill every year.

In response to Gilling, dumping used know-how is each harmful and a missed alternative.

“We’re dropping very invaluable supplies like valuable metals. And we’re additionally placing doubtlessly poisonous supplies into landfill,” she says.

A row of computer towers on a table in front of a window.

Donated computer systems prepared for upcylcing. Supply: SBS / Sandra Fulloon

“So, we actually want to gather these objects, hold them in circulation wherever doable.”

For technician Saif Al-Yousef, who volunteers at Upcycled Tech, repairing used gadgets is a win-win for the setting and struggling households.

“We clear the gadgets, improve them with new components, after which we ensure that they’re working completely,” he says.

“That manner, computer systems and laptops will hold going for maybe one other 5 or 6 years with out households spending an excessive amount of cash.

A man in a white t-shirt sitting at a desk with computers.

Saif Al-Yousuf volunteers restoring computer systems in Sydney. Supply: SBS / Spencer Austad

“It makes me very completely satisfied, understanding a baby who has no pc will get a tool that helps with their training.”

Founder Sujan Selven nonetheless works full-time as an operations supervisor at a civil electrical firm, and says his challenge will give 5 restored laptops to an anti-slavery charity in Australia this week.

He additionally goals to extend the supply of gadgets to his homeland.

“It’s a variety of crimson tape in the intervening time to take the gadgets into Sri Lanka. However we’re slowly discussing with the federal government to make issues smoother,” he says.

“In future, we need to increase the variety of gadgets that we obtain, and the variety of folks that profit from our service.”