ITAD and Why Businesses Cannot Do Without It

 

The irresponsible dumping of IT assets and electronic waste has become a major concern across the globe. The growth in technology cannot be stopped and it is essential for the growth of economy. Thus, it is vital that we manage the ways in which we dispose of our e-waste. This is where ITAD companies and services of national electronic recycling come into the picture. Your obsolete IT assets were once utilized to store and transmit important information. If they are not disposed of in a proper manner with complete data erasure using data destruction processes, they present a security risk to the company. Thus, effective ITAD is crucial. 

Important elements of an ITAD program 

ITAD or IT asset disposition is the business that involves disposing of unwanted or obsolete IT equipment in an eco-friendly and safe manner. An effectively planned ITAD program follows the following four steps: 

Transportation and logistics: It is the process in which old and surplus electronic assets depending on their reusability are labeled and transported to the place of their destruction.

Refurbishing: Once the equipment is sorted depending on their usability, they can be reused and restored. They can also be resold at market prices.

Data destruction: Data destruction is the most important component and it ensures that the entire data is destroyed in a foolproof manner. The certificates of data destruction are important for audit purposes. 

Recycling & reporting: Recycling is the final part of ITAD. In case your equipment gets listed as ‘not-reusable’, it will be sent away for the purpose of recycling. While recycling, the equipment reusable elements and components are taken out and the rest is incinerated. 

Chief advantages of an ITAD program

Inventory management 

IT gadgets are pivotal to run a business and as we grow, technology grows too. This makes it necessary to get rid of old equipment and upgrade the systems. With the help of ITAD companies, you get yourselves rid of the crisis linked with getting rid of your old equipment in an efficient manner. 

Management of cost of logistics 

It is not possible to dispose of your obsolete IT equipment on your own. This is because you will have to handle the tasks of collecting, sorting, labeling, grouping, removing, refurbishing and recycling. This can lead to breaking, losing or missing your equipment. ITAD companies help you save time, money and stress. 

Ensure secure data disposal 

It is vital that data erasure is safe and verified and ITAD ensures that. When data is destroyed in an irresponsible manner, it results in data breach that harms the organization and its employees and clients. ITAD makes sure that your data is destroyed responsibly via data destruction and then it is sent for recycling or reselling. 

In compliance with the law

Responsible disposition of assets expects that you follow the multiple local/national, corporate and environmental laws and regulations. When a business fails to adhere to these laws, it results in breach of trust and huge penalty. This also causes embarrassment for the business. An ITAD company makes sure that your disposition is done in adherence to the set regulations and laws.

Utmost value recovery

Asset disposition is not only expenditure, but also asset recovery. This implies that you receive value or revenue by refurbishing or reselling your electronic waste. An ITAD program that is well-planned helps in recovering the maximum from your used IT and telecom equipment directly via costs linked with reselling and elements recovered during recycling and indirectly by saving you from any breaching compliance and penalty. 

Thus, ITAD is crucial for your organization and you need to take it seriously so that your business makes the most of its old and obsolete IT assets. 

Essential Methods of Disposing Your Electronic Waste

 

E-waste is made from deadly chemicals like cadmium, lead, beryllium and mercury. When gadgets are disposed of in an improper manner, the hazardous substances present in them end up contaminating the soil and air and also reach water bodies. In spite of having services of local electronic recycling and corporate electronic recycling, a lot of e-waste ends up being shipped overseas and gadgets get buried in pits. It is vital that people adopt eco-friendly waste disposal methods so that they can dispose of their e-waste locally. Here’s a look at the distinct ways of safely disposing electronic waste: 

Sell your outdated electronics 

The electronic you are no longer using can be easily sold. Online websites like eBay and Craigslist can help you get rid of your outdated electronics and you can also earn money. You can also have a garage sale for your old electronic products and sell them to people who really need them. A lot of electronic shops are forever ready to buy old electronics from people. 

Give the electronics back your electronic company 

A range of electronic companies offer an exchange policy to their customers whereby they take back the old gadget from the customers when they buy a new version of the gadget. Customers also receive a discount on their new purchase. Some recycling companies have also set up initiatives for electronic drop off. They have drop off points for products like tablets and mobile phones. You can get in touch with local electronics shop to gain information concerning drop off locations.  

Give your e-waste to certified e-waste recycler

E-waste recycling equips you with good options of local electronic recycling. You need to get in touch with an e-waste recycler that is officially certified by the Basel Action Network (BAN). Basel Action Network is a non-profit organization of recycling companies that are dedicated to recycle electronic waste in a responsible and safe manner. All members are required to make a pledge and demonstrate their Pledges of Responsible Recycling. Thus, working with a certified recycler implies that you do not have to worry about risking losing your personal details to criminals or polluting another nation via export of e-waste. 

Go to civic Institutions

Enquire amongst your universities, schools and government for any programs of recycling they are running as a range of organizations have started assigning a particular place and day for citizens who are environmentally conscious to come and drop off their electronic waste. 

What Makes E-Waste Recycling Indispensable?

 

The electronic devices are increasingly becoming cheaper these days. The rising growth in the electronics industry has resulted in the massive issue of end-of-life (EOL) electronics or electronic waste. With the growing quantity of electronic waste, the need for electronic recycling programs has also grown. Let’s get an insight into e-waste and the significance of electronic recycling: 

E-waste

The end-of-life electronic devices known as e-scrap or e-waste include items like televisions, stereos, mobile phones and computer equipment. These things can often be recycled or refurbished but a good amount ends up in landfills. It has been estimated that only 20 percent of the global electronic waste is recycled and the rest 80 percent ends up in landfills.

Ways in which consumers can recycle their old electronics

People get access to opportunities of recycling depending on the location where they reside. The best option to deal with electronic waste is to donate your old electronic equipment that can be recycled or reused as is. Make sure that your personal information is wiped from the electronic devices before you donate them. Other opportunities of local electronic recycling include authorized electronics recycler locations, retailer take back programs or electronics recycling events. 

Can you throw e-waste in trash?

Your location and equipment decides whether you can throw your electronic waste in trash. Consider your specific state legislation but it’s advisable to recycle. Know that certain cities or communities have policies in place that ban electronic waste even when there is no such ban at the state level. Make sure to use the services of recyclers who are certified via either of the voluntary certification programs that have been established to guarantee responsible recycling. 

Importance of electronic recycling 

Rich raw materials source: Electronic waste is a rich source of raw materials internationally and only ten to fifteen percent of the gold in electronic waste is recovered successfully while the rest is lost. E-waste contains deposits of precious metals that are estimated to be between forty and fifty times richer than ores that are mined from the earth’s surface. 

Toxic materials: Since old electronic devices comprise toxic substances like mercury, lead, chromium and cadmium, adequate processing is pivotal to make sure that these materials do not get released into the environment. They might also contain other toxic chemical flame retardants and heavy chemicals.

    

International movement of harmful waste: The uncontrolled movement of electronic waste to countries where inexpensive labor and primal approaches to recycling have lead to health risks to residents that are exposed to the release of toxins. 

Advantages of Destroying Data In-House

 

Data deleted from hard drives and hard disks can be easily recovered via special software and other methods. Adequate destruction of hardware has become a crucial need among businesses. Any kind of storage media that is left undestroyed can make a company vulnerable to data thefts. The range of devices utilized in modern enterprises makes a proper data destruction process vital. Organizations that need to control their data and make sure that it gets destroyed can get an advantage from keeping their processes in-house. Here’s a look at the reasons to consider in-house data destruction:  

Control over the distinct steps of the process

It is vital to keep track of the sensitive data that is controlled by the government or the industry regulations. Organizations are required to document what they have done and what is needed to protect data at all times. This can be risky when companies need to manually record the location of decommissioned hard disks, track hard disk drives during shipment to a 3rd party specialist, monitor the disks before shipping them and confirm that the storage media has been effectively destroyed. When data destruction is done in-house, documentation becomes easier by removing any 3rd party stakeholders and problems of visibility that occur by depending on an outsider are eliminated.   

Guarantee of destruction

There are multiple methods accessible to erase data but not all function equally well. Physical destruction of data can be troublesome in case a disk does not get properly shredded. Physical access to important parts of a disk can make data accessible to expert hackers. Magnetic data wipes done by a hard disk degausser are capable of destroying all the information on the hard disk, making the data completely unrecoverable. Inadequate technologies and human error can happen if companies are not completely aware about whom they partner with. One method to save yourself from this risk is to keep the destruction process in-house. 

Control over operational expenditures

The long-term expenditures of paying for a service can add up to more than a company would spend on hardware-based solutions. Degaussers can allow an organization to recover the primary cost of purchase by saving on service subscriptions. Security and control combine with the long-term cost benefits to create effective return on investment for organizations that run through a good number of hard disks.

A Quick Guide to Important Data Destruction Methods

 

When it comes to hard drive destruction or data destruction, there is not a large variety of methods and the thing that is common with all approaches is the requirement to dispose of them in a secure manner. Merely throwing away the old items is not sufficient. Without the adequate disposal of items, businesses run the risk of exposing client information, information insurance, and security arrangements. 

Here’s a look at the distinct types of data destruction methods that are available for your business:

Overwriting

In case you have data that remains on disks and storage media even after you have tried to erase it, then the most commonly used method to get rid of it is via overwriting the media with new data. The process is also called sanitization or data wiping. When the data is overwritten in such a manner, a pattern of 0s and 1s is written over the original information. At times, a random pattern is made use if and this makes for later verification that the drive has been wiped completely.

As overwriting hard drive data is made possible by software and is used selectively on all or part of a storage medium, it is a simple option for certain applications. Ensuring that all information is addressed, one pass is generally sufficient to remove all the data. Nevertheless, at times, high-security applications might need multiple wipes and this provides an added measure that ensures that the old data is destroyed. Overwriting is a cost-effective and eco-friendly option of data destruction.

Physical destruction

This method sounds like the most effective data destruction method and businesses can physically destroy data in a range of ways like melting, shredding, pulverizing, etc. The methods ensure that the hard drive becomes completely inoperable after the destruction. Physical destruction needs to be carried out with the help of high-powered equipment only. With the developments in technology, it has become possible to retrieve data even from damaged hard drives. When a process of data wiping is utilized prior to physically destroying the disk, it makes sure that the data is thoroughly destroyed. Reliable ITAD companies take upon themselves the task of effectively destroying data from the electronic equipment before disposing of it.

Degaussing

This method of data destruction makes use of a high-powered magnet to disturb the magnetic field of floppy disks, magnetic tapes, or hard disks. Once this is done, the data gets destroyed as part of the process. This is done by making use of a degausser. Degaussing ensures that data becomes completely unrecoverable in a less amount of time and this makes the process ideal for dealing with data that is highly sensitive. It decreases the labor resources and time required to overwrite information. The process of degaussing prevents the recovery of any company information by data recovery software or services, thereby strengthening the data security of your company from any outside threats. Degaussing diminishes the risks that are concerned with potentially damaging financial data, emails and proprietary information thereby uprooting the risks of compromising any information being exposed.

 

It’s Time to Handle The Quickest Increasing Stream of Waste

 

E-waste is one of the quickest developing waste streams on the planet. Every year, new customer gadgets and corporate hardware are getting utilized, and the old ones are getting disposed of. Over 90% of ewaste is dumped wrongfully, which is a significant issue. There is a rising interest in electronic recycling suppliers that can appropriately deal with that ewaste.

While a great many people discard their old contraptions such as hard drives, screen, keyboards, phones, laptops etc. which advance toward the landfills, that ewaste is taking up a significant a normal asset which could have been utilized for different purposes.

The IT hardware that you believe is a waste is valuable from various perspectives. Do you realize that there's gold, copper, silver and different components present in a large number of the IT hardware. The electronic reusing suppliers adhering to the public electronic reusing rules and guidelines appropriately treat every equipment thing to extricate the pivotal metals from these gadgets.

Along these lines, tossing them in the landfills aren't useful for anybody. As opposed to discarding them, one ought to all in all send them to the electronic reusing suppliers with the goal that those organizations can treat the ewaste the correct way, for example, the hard drive destruction should be carried by the professional recyclers only. These organizations classified the gadgets dependent on their sorts and class. In any case, make certain to contact just the authorized reusing specialist co-ops as such organizations will reuse the ewaste adhering to the standards and guidelines and spare nature from getting contaminated due to ewaste.

Information deleting is additionally another alternative for the organizations who would prefer not to go for equipment destruction. The pivotal information is eradicated from the capacity gadgets to prevent their information from getting into inappropriate hands.

How to Select A Trustworthy E-Waste Recycling Company for Your Business

 

In this technology-driven world, most of our items operate via electronic means and thus, the generation of electronic waste is rising phenomenally. As more and more advanced and superior versions of smartphones, computers and laptops are introduced regularly, people tend to irresponsibly dispose of their unused and old electronics in landfills. This habit in turn contributes to pollution and global warming. E-waste recycling plays a key role in disposing of old electronics in a responsible way. Let us have a look at some tips to select good e-waste company.

Select the company with proper credentials and certifications

Prior to selecting an electronic recycler, make sure that the company is functioning under strict environmental compliance. It is also important to know that the company is certified to carry out its job. Your chosen company should be either NAID certified or at least a member of the NAID.

Choose a firm that has specialization in their field

It is not good to assume that regular recycling companies provide services for e-waste recycling. Even though certain companies do provide this service, it is advisable to choose a firm that has specialization in both electronic waste recycling and hard drive destruction. When you choose a firm that has specialization in both the areas, your business is able to handle the task of electronic recycling in a less time consuming and more convenient manner.

 

5 Important Ways in Which Hard Drive Destruction Benefits Your Business

All businesses tend to accumulate hard drives. What does one do with these old and obsolete hard drives? In case you are in the process of improving your IT and freeing your business of old hard drives, then it is crucial for you take appropriate measures. This will ensure that you do not end up breaching data. Even though you might feel that the cheapest option is to destroy your hard drives on your own but this can put your data at the risk of getting accessed and used maliciously. Let us have a look here at how hard drive destruction can prove to be advantageous for businesses:

The data will become unrecoverable

For expert hackers and criminals, it is not tough to retrieve data from an erased hard drive, a hard drive that has been damaged or even a drive that has been left unattended or thrown away. Even when you wipe off the data that is stored in your device, there is no guarantee that it cannot be recovered. ITAD companies or data destruction companies make sure that your hard drive is physically destroyed. This further ensures that criminals become incapable of retrieving data from the device.

No worry of hefty fines

Not many are aware of this but if you do not dispose of your hard drives in a proper manner, you can expose yourself to huge fines. Whenever there is a security breach, it can result in costing you thousands of pounds and lead to a heavy bill. If you utilize the services of a data destruction company, you save yourself from such a situation.

Use your office space judiciously

When obsolete hard drives or other devices are just sitting around in your office, they can take up a good amount of space that could easily have been used for better purposes. In case you are in search of an extra room and you do not possess the equipment or the time to destroy the data by yourself, the best method is to outsource this task to professionals.

Keep your organization compliant

One of the crucial things about using the services of hard drive destruction is that their professionals have the required expertise. This implies that they possess the essential knowledge in terms of compliance and regulations when it comes to the destruction of storage media. Thus, you do not have to fear that you are breaching any data laws while disposing of your devices.

Entire data will be removed

One of the most important concerns when it comes to destroying storage media is making sure that all of the sensitive data is removed. The data destruction companies employ professional equipment for the process and thus, you can be assured that all of your data will be effectively removed from the device. You wouldn’t be worried a bit about your data falling into wrong hands. All you got to do is get in touch with a professional company that has the required equipment and expertise to do the destruction task properly for you.

How ITAD Services Come In Handy For Your Company

When it comes to replacing, reselling or removing the old IT equipment of your company, there is a range of factors you need to consider. These include your company’s sensitive data, logistical responsibilities and environmental compliance. All these need a competent strategy and specialized services. ITAD companies offer a stringent process needed for disposition of IT assets. The vendors specialize in helping you remove your unneeded and old equipment without putting the environment at risk. They also help you decrease logistical costs along the way. ITAD vendors should be able to provide you the following services:

Data center discovery

Your old IT equipment are required to be taken offline and dissociated from the corporate infrastructure. This is a technical activity and needs to be carried out effectively. ITAD companies offer networking experience, specialized contractors and machinery and detailed knowledge of data center environments and software for discovery. All these are vital for the teardown of data centers.

Data removal

Data leak can prove to be a serious threat for organizations. It is crucial that all equipment have their data wiped. The location of this can be remote or on-site and this decision is taken by inputs from your ITAD services provider.

Data security

Certain industries make the process of data erasure a bit complicated owing to their heavy regulations. A reliable ITAD company tailors your needs of data erasure to the requisite protocols for drive erasure.

Management Regulations, Market Mechanism & Domestic Effects Of E-Waste Production

There are many directives and rules and regulations that make electronic recycling easier for all of us. When it comes to local electronics recycling or hard drive destruction, we tend to think that the entire process is going to be very complicated. This is not the case at all. All you have to do is find a reliable e-waste recycling service provider in the city if the electronics / gadgets / appliances do not have any disposal guidelines and directions printed on their back / bottom. Yes, there are certain guidelines and directions that are always printed at the back or bottom of the electronic equipment that you have been using for years.

These directions tell you how to package the electronic equipment when it has come to the end of its useful / operable life cycle. They further educate you on where to deliver / transport the same electronic product after you have completely used it. There are facilities across the city that take up electronics and efficiently recycle them in the most environment-friendly manner without letting any chemicals or harmful substances seeping out into the environment.

Understanding Regulations And Market Mechanism When It Comes To Electronic Recycling And Reuse

The United States has also begun taking this problem seriously. The country needs rules and regulations to handle this problem both at the state and federal level. According to an independent study, used electronics are one of the fastest growing sources of waste across the US and will have serious health impacts on the coming generations more than any other disease. United States is also one of the leading e-waste producers in the world followed by China and several European nations.

Domestic Effects Of Unwatched E-Waste Production

The biggest threat that comes from e-waste production is land filling. In order to prevent our water bodies and air from getting extremely polluted and our soil from getting contaminated beyond repair, the biggest step that we have to take is establish collection goals and efficient channels that do not let e-waste get transported from households and business complexes to our landfills. The biggest risk associated with dismantling of e-waste by hand is exposure to lead and cadmium. This is also a reason that a lot of people just prefer to throw their e-waste in the nearest empty ground. But the time has come to recycle old electronics in the most efficient manner so that nobody is exposed to these harmful chemicals and we are able to preserve our environment for the coming generations.

What Does A Responsible Data Destruction Ensure?

Sensitive information is no longer stored in documents. Businesses are now more reliant on electronic media like hard drives for enhanced privacy of data. Everything is indeed advanced but one should not forget to destroy the drives that are in non-working condition. Hard drive destruction is crucial to avoid getting data moving into the wrong hands. Better to hire someone who can destroy the old drives safely and in a responsible manner.

Data destruction helps in the following ways:

• Certified data destruction and erasure prevents data breaches.
• Data destruction means deleting important data from storage devices. This means it saves organizations from facing a huge amount of losses.
• Another benefit of data destruction is that it protects the environment as experts ensure there is no leakage of harmful metals during the destruction process.

It is important to make a storage device unrecoverable before its disposal. The storage device can be either internal or external containing essential business information. Even the storage devices that are fit to reuse need a certified data erasure.

Whenever you buy a new laptop or computer, you make sure to destroy its internal hard drives responsibly. The method you choose to destroy the drives should be environmental-friendly. And this is where a support certified electronics recycler proves to be beneficial. They make use of hard drive destruction methods that are safe and help in reducing e-waste.

Strict National Electronic Recycling Reforms - Why We Need To Act Now

We are in desperate need of national electronic recycling companies at the moment. Several surveys have indicated that the majority of e-waste produced in the USA and many other developed countries is disposed of in developing countries such as India, Pakistan, parts of Africa, and some Middle Eastern nations as well. No attention is paid to the safety norms of this disposal and this has left the environment of these countries and many across the globe at a big risk. Health problems in these regions have alarmed their national governments and the effect is going to show eventually across every country in the world. Electronic recycling is therefore the need of the hour for everyone.

The European Union has legislation in place which requires manufacturers to stress upon e-waste disposal mechanisms across the industry. Every manufacturer has to abide by certain rules, regulations and compliances while managing their e-waste on a regular basis. In countries like the USA, UK and Australia, Singapore, and many parts of Europe the biggest reason for the failure of any national electronic recycling firm is not just one. 

There is difficulty in following these stringent guidelines

The cost of recycling used electronics is also relatively higher

There is a severe lack of efficient enforcement of legislation laws regarding e-waste exports to developing countries

According to an independent study, impacts of unsafe and unmonitored e-waste disposal are already showing on several countries of Asia and Central Africa as well.

Ignoring The 1992 Movement - Basel Convention

The Basel Convention had already banned the export of dangerous e-waste to poor countries in the year 1992. But the practice has continued ever since. A lot of manufacturers call this move "bridging the digital divide" which is completely hypocritical in nature. By exporting discarded and obsolete electronics that have almost come to the end of their life cycle to poor countries, we cannot bridge the digital divide between them and us. Secondhand goods or any broken electronics cannot be reused by anyone whether it is in Africa or India. Many times, illegal disposal is covered up by the name of charitable donations and according to the United Nations Environment Program, this practice is causing several health hazards in addition to irreparable environmental damages a cross numerous countries. Only strict national electronic recycling reforms can help us come out of this problem.

Why Do You Think That Electronic Waste Data Destruction Has Become So Important?

Why do you think that electronic waste data destruction has become so important? It is because we are continuing to use and throw electronics at a very rapid pace. We have become oblivious to the fact that this constant use ‘n’ throw attitude is harming our environment.

According to a joint study released by the World Economic Forum and the Business Council for Sustainable Development, the material value of the electronic devices that that we discard as being useless and obsolete amounts to a staggering $62.5 billion globally? Yes, this is nearly thrice the annual output of silver mines across the globe.  According to the data in the new global e-waste report, over 120 countries record an annual GDP which is much lower than the value of the global e-waste that we have been producing. This data along with the many adverse effects of piling electronic waste on the planet and our inability to manage it has necessitated efficient and timely electronic waste data destruction around the world. If we don't do it now, it will be too late for everyone.

Follow These Tips To Recycle Your E-Waste Responsibly!

When one purchases the latest versions of their favorite electronics or gadgets, they do not think about the environmental considerations. How we dispose of e-waste can have a significant impact on the environment. If you go for upgrading your electronic gadgets, follow the below-mentioned tips to ensure that you recycle your electronic waste responsibly:

If the electronic device is still working

If you have a working device or phone, do not recycle it. Boost the lifecycle of the device by donating it to someone in need. There is a range of organizations that can help you put your electronics to good use. You can search for such organizations on the internet and put your discarded electronics to good use. 

Get in touch with a responsible recycling service

Contact a responsible electronics recycling service near you. Ask them how they will deal with the e-waste and whether they possess any certifications and recycle according to strict standards. It is important to get in touch with e-waste companies that process your waste in a responsible fashion with the least impact on the environment and human health. 

Explore your options for recycling

Find out the recycling options available in your area. Find out who will accept your old electronics and see if the manufacturer is ready to take back your used items. Certain brands like Apple allow their customers to recycle their devices online or in stores. Some retailers take back old televisions or radios and other e-waste if you are purchasing a new one from them. Mobile phones are comparatively easy to recycle as recyclers generally have a free of cost mail-in service and you are not required to arrange a collection or drop it off.