Teen e-waste recycler

I’ve always had a fascination with taking things apart and how things have worked on the inside.

I’m Caleb Lawrence and I run a small business called Devices for the Nations. So basically my whole life I’ve been tinkering with devices ever since I could turn a screwdriver really. I guess I’ve just reverse engineered all of these things and figured out exactly how they work and how I can fix them and put them back together.

My business really evolved from me starting repairing phones. So my friend, when I was in Year 6, had a broken phone, so I said I’ll offer to fix it for free, and then I realised, hey, I can start a business doing this’.

So when I was 11 years old I started my very first phone repair business called Techline. I did phone repairs and I did computer builds. It all started from there.

I saw the issue of a lot of e-waste being destroyed and buried in landfills and I was thinking that maybe I could actually repurpose it and send it overseas where it’s needed the most. I talk to schools and businesses across the local area and ask for their e-waste and say it’ll be repurposed. Usually schools and businesses have to pay for it to be taken away, but me taking it for free is actually a service to them.

Now my business, Devices for the Nations, specialises in taking old devices that would have otherwise been scrapped for e-waste, refurbishing them and sending them overseas for mission to support churches, orphanages and any other organisations in third world countries which need some help. I’ve sent over a hundred now to Ethiopia, Cambodia and Solomon Islands.

So I guess I get the fulfilment and knowledge that my work has benefited people all across the world and that it’s made a real impact onto many people’s lives and it’s changed their outlook for the better.