Centro de Recondicionamento de Computadores (CRC) — Belo Horizonte's Circular-Economy Digital Inclusion Hub

The Centro de Recondicionamento de Computadores (CRC) opened in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 2008 as part of the city's 'BH Digital' digital-inclusion strategy, run by the municipal IT company Prodabel with Brazil's Ministry of Communications, civil-society organisations and private donors. The centre trains young people aged 16-24 from the city's lower-income peripheral neighbourhoods to test, repair, clean and reconfigure donated computers, which are then redistributed free of charge to public schools, libraries, community telecentres and social organisations, prioritising residents of roughly 220 favelas and housing complexes.

Between 2008 and 2019 the centre restored over 9,000 machines, diverting an estimated 15,000 kg of electronic waste from landfill each year while training more than 10,000 citizens in basic digital and environmental-education skills. By early 2026, the municipality reported the programme had donated over 3,000 reconditioned devices directly to vulnerable families, distributed a further 3,400 units to social organisations, supplied more than 50,000 devices to municipal school students, and issued over 26,000 training certificates, with the reuse model also extended to partner municipalities in Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro.

Figures come from the municipality's own reporting rather than an independent third-party evaluation, and the programme's reach, while sustained over 18 years, remains concentrated in a single Brazilian metropolitan region.