17 August 2026
From e-waste to access: giving useful technology a second life
Nicholas O’Sullivan’s detailed look at the 2025 Australian Digital Inclusion Index and what it means for North Queensland shows how strongly access, affordability and digital ability still vary by income, age and geography. Nick’s full article is the source of truth for the figures used across this small series and links through to the official Index and underlying data; this is one practical angle on what communities and organisations can do with the findings.
The device gap sits inside the digital divide
The 2025 Index, which mainly uses data collected in 2024, gives the lowest-income household quintile an Affordability score of 34.5, compared with 99.2 for the highest-income quintile. Connectivity is part of that pressure, but a connection is not much use for schoolwork, job applications or online services without a suitable device to use it on.
At the same time, businesses, schools and households regularly retire computers that may no longer suit their own fleet but still have years of useful life. That creates a better option than sending every retired device directly into the recycling stream: reuse what remains safe, reliable and supportable, then recycle what genuinely cannot be re-housed.
Reuse before recycling
Good re-housing is more than passing on whatever is in the storeroom. A device needs to be assessed, securely cleared of its previous owner’s data and accounts, checked for faults, prepared with supported software and matched to a recipient who can actually use it. Done properly, one action can reduce e-waste and improve digital access.
Queensland-based LiteHaus International is one example of this model at scale. Its current Australian program page reports that it has distributed more than 10,000 laptops, reaching more than 17,000 students, with a focus on First Nations, migrant and refugee, regional and low-income communities. Its published updates also describe devices reaching students across remote Queensland, including Cape York, the Gulf Country and the Torres Strait.
Closer to home, Suburban Australia’s computer recycling initiative is intended to give useful Townsville technology another local pathway. Working computers can be collected, securely wiped and considered for re-housing with a local not-for-profit; equipment that is no longer viable should move into a responsible e-waste stream instead.
A practical decision for every retired device
- Still useful and supportable? Offer it through an established refurbishment, donation or community re-housing pathway.
- Still contains storage? Treat secure, verifiable data erasure as part of the handover—not as an optional extra.
- Locked to an organisation? Remove management, activation and account controls before it leaves your custody.
- Faulty, unsafe or no longer supportable? Send it to an appropriate e-waste recycler rather than transferring the problem to a charity or family.
- Not sure what recipients need? Ask first. A smaller number of reliable, usable devices is more helpful than a pallet of unsuitable equipment.
Suburban Secure has published a companion guide to the security steps that should happen before a computer is donated or re-housed. For the full North Queensland analysis, charts, methodology and downloadable source-data archive, return to Nick’s original digital inclusion article.