The world's first circular microcomputer made in Belgium

After observing that millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year in Europe, even though their components — harmful to produce and complex to recycle — are still functional, a Belgian start-up based in Braine-le-Château in the province of Walloon Brabant has embarked on an unprecedented recycling project.

In partnership with an adapted work company, old smartphones are dismantled and their parts sorted so that only the components that are still functional are retained. Motherboards that are still in working order are then reprogrammed to be integrated into an "embedded computer", which could, even at this early stage, take the form of a router, an industrial process monitoring system, or a box for optimising household energy consumption. And, of course, this Belgian start-up is also considering other new applications.

This device, known as "DevKit", is now in the industrialisation and marketing phase, with partnerships already in place with organisations such as UCLouvain and Deutsche Telekom.

As well as being a step in the right direction for the environment, this Belgian innovation enables us to free ourselves from our dependence on elements as strategic as electronic components.