Free Software, Computer Reuse, and Digital Product Passports: Experiences from eReuse.org

The right to repair and reuse is becoming a central pillar of Europe’s digital and environmental agenda. This lightning talk shows how free software can play a concrete and enabling role in this transition, drawing on the real-world experience of eReuse.org and its free software tools DeviceHub, Workbench, and IdHub. Introducing cases of computer reuse, we show how these tools support hardware profiling, inventory management, device digital identifiers, refurbishment, traceability, and lifecycle impact, and how they are used by social reuse and refurbishment entities in different countries. These organisations collect unused computers from donors, refurbish them, and distribute them to new users to extend the useful life of these devices, demonstrating a practical circular economy enabled by open digital infrastructures. We then connect these practices with the emerging concept of Digital Product Passports (DPP): how reuse-oriented data models, transparency, and interoperability already implemented in free software ecosystems can inform future DPP implementations for electronic products. In this context, DeviceHub and IdHub provide support for DPPs using DIDs and Verifiable Credentials. Finally, we situate this work in the broader political and economic context: EU sustainability regulation, and the strategic role of free software and SMEs in ensuring that DPPs remain open, auditable, and beneficial for society rather than becoming closed compliance tools. The talk concludes with a short, practical reflection on how developers can contribute to reuse, repair, and digital sovereignty through free software.