Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub have announced that projects supported by its £1 million Time After Time fund have worked with more than 260,000 people.
The Time After Time fund aims to help tackle electronic waste and give unused tech a second life. Almost 10,000 people have donated a device, repaired or recycled broken devices, or attended a workshop, as part of projects funded by Virgin Media O2 and environmental charity, Hubbub.
The organisations say that as part of this, 8,000 electrical items were repaired, reused or recycled, and more than 60% of donated tech, such as smartphones and tablets, were redistributed.
Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub are now planning to share the impact and learnings of the fund, which has provided grants totalling £1 million to 18 circularity projects nationwide.
Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub established the Time After Time fund in 2022 in response to the nation’s growing e-waste problem. The UK produces 24 kg of e-waste per person, the second-highest amount in the world after Norway.
Gavin Ellis, Director and Co-Founder of Hubbub, commented: “It’s fantastic to see the combined impact of the Time After Time fund changing real lives across the country.
“Hubbub and Virgin Media O2 are delighted the Fund has supported these projects to grow and adapt to issues like flooding, venue changes and working with vulnerable groups.”
It’s fantastic to see the combined impact of the Time After Time fund changing real lives across the country.
Hundreds of groups applied for grants during two rounds of funding from the Time After Time initiative during 2022-23 and 2024-25.
The winners were selected by a panel of expert sustainability judges who awarded funding to applicants that demonstrated how they could drive behaviour change by inspiring people to reuse or donate their unwanted devices, or gain further insight on how to reduce e-waste, and address digital exclusion with unused tech.
Examples of the projects funded by the Time After Time fund include how Coventry City Council scaled its digital inclusion programme to increase the number of device donations from corporate partners across the city, which have been rehomed to people who need them via its Device Bank.
Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub say Giroscope in Hull saw a 200% increase in device donations, which were rehomed with digitally excluded people across the city.
Power to Connect in Battersea received more than 1,300 device donations from a range of partners and Wandsworth residents, the organisations said, which more than doubled the amount of tech they received the year before.
Hubbub and Virgin Media O2 also held events at universities across the UK, such as ‘hackathons’ to find ways to address e-waste and tech repair fairs to allow students to keep their devices working for longer.
Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer at Virgin Media O2, commented: “We’re proud of the scale and impact of Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub’s Time After Time fund, and of the hard-working organisations that have delivered these innovative, community-led projects across the UK.”