400 Million Reasons to Rethink Tech: Closing the Device Gap Through Circularity

A 30-minute panel on the roughly 400 million unused devices sitting in UK drawers, around 40 per cent of them reusable, set against the 1.5 million people with no access to a device at all. The framing is that reuse is a coordination problem rather than a business-model one: getting the right hardware to the right people, safely and locally. Speakers come from telecoms, secure data handling and the local community, including Louise Whitaker, Circular Economy Lead at Virgin Media O2; techSPARK says more are to be announced. The discussion covers what holds reuse back, from data-security fears to missing infrastructure, and where the West of England could lead. At The Station, part of Brazen. Why go: a concrete logistics problem with real numbers and an operator in the room, not a general sustainability session. Best for IT asset, hardware and social-impact teams.