Out of Use is a Belgian environmental company based in Beringen that takes obsolete IT and electronics off companies' hands, from a few laptops to a whole server room. It destroys the data with a certificate, refurbishes what can still be used and recycles the rest into raw materials, then reports the CO₂ avoided.
About Out of Use
Out of Use has worked for 15 years on one idea, summed up in its motto "Giving purpose": every device keeps as much value as possible, first as a product, then as parts and finally as raw materials. From its site in Beringen (Limburg), the company handles everything from smartphones to full data centre dismantling, and also collects and processes electric vehicle batteries and pyrotechnic car parts such as airbags. In March 2018 it became the first Belgian B2B recycler to receive the WEEELABEX certificate, and it is a chartered Recupel collector and processor of household and professional e-waste. Recycling stays deliberately local, so raw materials are recovered in Belgium and Europe. Out of Use gives dismantling work to 13 sheltered workshops, has partnered with Natuurpunt since 2015 and Natagora since 2017 to turn collected equipment into new woodland, and sells refurbished devices through its Back in Use webshop. To date it has processed 13,200 tonnes of e-waste, avoided 118,600 tonnes of CO₂, planted 371,303 m² of forest and reused 30% of the equipment it receives. Clients include ING Belgium, Engie Electrabel, Smals, UZ Gent, SPIE, ETAP Lighting, Fujitsu and Agfa.
They also worked with Out of Use
Engie Electrabel
Smals
UZ Gent
SPIE
ETAP Lighting
Sopra Banking Software
What Out of Use has delivered
ING BelgiumBanking
A circular path for every unused IT device of a bank
Since 2023, Out of Use has been ING Belgium's exclusive partner for all its unused IT devices. Both sides first set specific agreements and SLAs, then Out of Use took over the whole chain of collection, processing and data destruction, with the focus on reuse and CO₂ savings. ING receives reports on CO₂ and on data destruction, and its staff can buy refurbished ING devices for private use through the Back in Use webshop, with customer service and warranty from Out of Use.
Clearing 13 office floors without sending devices to waste
At the end of 2022, Engie Electrabel moved out of an office building in central Brussels and had to clear 13 floors full of IT equipment. Instead of throwing it away, it asked Out of Use to remove and process everything safely and in line with e-waste rules. 624 monitors and 58 desktops went to Circular.Brussels, a non-profit linked to Out of Use that works to close the digital divide in Belgium, and the rest was recovered as e-waste.
ETAP Lighting runs a Circular Light as a Service (C-LaaS) model, but that model is only circular if the old fittings removed during renovation and refurbishment projects are also processed properly. Since 2024, Out of Use collects, sorts and processes these materials so that each fraction goes back to European industry as a raw material, and supplies figures on material recovery and CO₂ avoided that ETAP uses in its own sustainability reporting.
Moving to new energy-efficient offices left Sopra Banking Software with a large batch of obsolete IT equipment. The team wanted the most sustainable and secure option and chose Out of Use for an all-in service in which the proceeds create new forest in Belgium. The fintech links the project to UN goals 12 (responsible consumption and production) and 15 (life on land).
2,600 copiers from 16 countries prepared for reuse
SPIE Belgium's ICS Division has worked with Out of Use since 2017 to give its old ICT equipment a second life. For one project, Out of Use collected about 2,600 copiers from European institutions in 32 towns and cities across 16 countries, wiped all data before transport to its Beringen warehouse and prepared the machines for reuse in Europe. SPIE receives a certificate guaranteeing data destruction for every data carrier, and what cannot be reused is recycled into secondary raw materials.
Certified on-site data destruction for a university hospital
UZ Gent made data security a key award criterion in its public tender for disposing of old hardware, and Out of Use won a multi-annual contract. To rule out any risk, the hospital chose destruction on its own site: Out of Use's shredder grinds the hard disks into fragments of no more than 300 mm², and a destruction certificate proves each time that the data is gone. The hardware is then recycled in line with the WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU and the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC.
“Omdat we alle risico’s wilden uitsluiten, kozen we voor een datavernietiging op onze eigen locatie. De harde schijven worden door de shredder fijngemalen tot kleine stukjes van maximum 300 vierkante millimeter. Het vernietigingscertificaat geeft ons steeds een geldig bewijs van de datavernietiging.”
Veronique De Boever,Purchaser, Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent)
“Wij zijn heel tevreden met deze resultaten. Ik wil Out of Use graag bedanken voor hun professionalisme en flexibiliteit, het was echt een plezier om met hen te werken. Het was niet de eerste keer, en zal niet de laatste zijn.”
Vincent Vandenplas,IT & CRM manager, Engie Electrabel
“In onze diverse projecten hebben we daardoor al meer dan 10.000 toestellen op de meest correcte manier laten verwerken. Out of Use maakt 'We do what we preach' zichtbaar.”
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