UPDATE: This contest has ended! Thanks to all who entered — we loved seeing how you gave your legacy tech a new lease on life. And, big congrats to our three randomly selected winners: @degarris , @JThoms and @Naveed. Stayed tuned for your swag delivery!
It’s National Recycling Day here in the U.S. and we thought why not repurpose one of our past contests for a little recycling fun!
Electronic waste or e-waste continues to be the fastest growing source of waste globally. In fact, each year we generate around 40 million tons of e-waste worldwide — that’s equivalent to throwing away 800 laptops every second! Worse still, less than 13% of e-waste ends up being recycled. Due to the heavy metals and other hazardous materials e-waste contains, it is the leading contributor to toxic waste.
It is more important than ever that we do our part to reuse, upcycle, or recycle old tech so it doesn’t end up in landfills. That’s why Cisco has a Takeback and Reuse program to decommission your end-of-life equipment in an environmentally safe manner. It’s also why we host our annual Recycling Day Contest. We love seeing all of the creative ways you come up with to repurpose old tech!
While there have been many unique and innovative upcycles you all have found over the years, here are just a few of our favorites from last year’s contest:
You could say we’re a big FAN of this project. @MRT320 made this office fan from discarded PSUs to cool down during a heatwave. 😎
Of course when it comes to upcycling, beauty serves its own form of utility! Take this garden decor, for example. @zRobert turned this tree invisible using harddrive platters. 🌳
Now let’s see your projects! For this contest, we want to know how you are transforming your busted, broken, or simply outdated tech to give it new life as a completely reimagined masterpiece or by passing it on to someone who will get plenty of use from it. Show us those pics of your old MX appliance turned paperweight! Got grand plans but no photographic evidence? That’s okay, too. You can simply tell us about your project or the plans you have in store to reduce e-waste through reusing or recycling old tech.
How to Win
In a comment on this post, submit your repurposed or upcycled tech as an image or via a brief description and be entered to win swag. Submit your entry on this blog post before 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, November 21st (11/21/2023). We’ll then draw three at random to win a Meraki H2Go Bali Water Bottle! Your entries will be public and visible throughout the contest.
The fine print
- Limit one entry per community member
- Submission period: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 11:00am ET through Tuesday, November 21st, 2023 at 10:59am ET
- Full terms, conditions, and eligibility information
