“These items carry a full 12 month warranty, the same as our new equipment,” explains Bob Peters, Sales & Marketing Director, Greenwoods Communications. “To re-use equipment successfully, it has to go out exactly as if it was newly manufactured.”

“The Greenwoods service is excellent,” comments Kevin Hobman, Reverse Logistics Manager, Orange UK. “To my knowledge no equipment that has been refurbished by Greenwoods has failed when commissioned on site. Greenwoods are very flexible in their approach to Orange's changes in strategy, which sometimes means short notice changes in demand.”

Once stripped, the cabinets themselves are also refurbished. Often this means fitting them with new doors, the part that is most regularly damaged during site removal. “We also clean up the networking cabinets and if necessary repaint them, before holding them in stores awaiting call-off by Orange. Refurbishment saves several thousands of pounds per cabinet compared to purchasing new product,” says Bob Peters.

Greenwoods Communications offers a full service that includes collection of old equipment from Orange sites and delivery back to stock once the items are refurbished. Currently about 50 cabinets per month are refurbished for Orange.

“Operators today are constantly looking for ways to lower costs, while at the same time developing more environmentally friendly processes that their customers are demanding,” says Peter Skinner, Commercial Director, Greenwoods Communications. “This is an innovative approach from Orange and a service that Greenwoods Communications is looking to develop to meet growing operator demand for recycling, instead of writing off equipment.”