Discovering The Benefits Of Timely E-Waste Recycling

The very first thing that you will notice is that timely recycling of electronic waste enables us to recover not just reusable plastic and metal but various precious elements as well. It helps us save our natural resources and enables us to reduce pollution by conserving landfill spaces.

Do you know that recycling 1 million cell phones can help us recover around 75 pounds of gold? This is an astounding amount of precious metal in addition to 772 pounds of silver, 35,000 pounds of copper which is a great conductor of electricity, and also 33 pounds of palladium.

Various electronic waste recycling services also encourage the end-user to participate in take-back coalitions and committees. This is the only way to prevent this e waste from reaching developing countries and polluting their environment. It also helps you save nearly 1.5 tons of water and 530 pounds of fossil fuel. According to studies, these resources, in addition to 40 pounds of chemicals go into manufacturing just a single computer and monitor. Now you know why we need national electronic recycling and data destruction on a larger scale.

The Electronic Recycling Process - Wrapping Your Head Around It

The entire process of data destruction and electronic recycling can be very tiring and complex. All the sophisticated and state-of-the-art devices that we discard so frequently contain varying proportions of metals and toxic compounds as well. They also comprise glass, plastics, sockets, circuits, wires, and a lot more. This is why many ITAD companies resort to the manual separation of these parts as well. For other complicated processes, there are sophisticated, machines and plants in place. Let us begin with a general overview of the entire process of electronic recycling in the simplest words:

Collection And Transportation Of E Waste

These are two processes that are combined to make sure that none of the e-waste gets in the hands of uninformed and informal handlers. This is the first step towards effective and ethical recycling of hardware such as computers, screens, processors, air conditioners, smartphones, home assistants, Bluetooth speakers, and a lot more. These electronic waste items are transferred to specific locations where they are handled by skilled and qualified professionals.

Shredding, Sorting, And Separation Of IT Assets

Once all the electronic waste is collected at a single place, the various waste products are sorted out and categorized. The items that need to be crushed and recycled are separated from the ones that can be put to reuse. The separation of plastics from several metals and compounds, internal circuits, wires, and other objects is carried out very carefully.

Many ewaste companies also employ water separation technology to segregate glass from plastic objects. Any remaining metal remnants are also located and extracted during the final stages of separation.

The items that are to be recycled are sent to the shredder. And finally, the ones that are to be resold, are kept in separate containers either to be processed or repaired or just sold raw to hardware stores across the city. This is how ewaste recycling works and it is time we became a part of this process before it is too late.

The Most Important Things to Consider In Your ITAD Company

ITAD is the acronym for IT asset disposition. When organizations are required to upgrade or dispose of endpoint hardware or data center equipment, they consider the services of ITAD services. In order to make sure that you choose the best ITAD firm, here’s a look at the important questions that you need to consider:

Does the company provide full life cycle management?

Reliable ITAD companies will assist you in all stages of the process of disposition. They will operate with you as full service partner throughout the life cycle of your hardware and related equipment. Managing data center hardware is not something that can be done in one go. Whether you are undertaking a refresh cycle or decommissioning a data center, your ITAD partner will know what needs to be done.

Does the company have appropriate certifications?

It is vital that you effectively check credentials of the ITAD company and make sure that the vendor is a knowledgeable one. In certain cases, especially around issues like data sanitization, you might be subject to regulatory compliance. Here’s a look at the important certifications that you need to consider in your vendor when it comes to corporate electronic recycling:

R2 (Responsible Recycling)

R2 accounts for the recycling standard that is administered by SERI (Sustainable Electronics Recycling International). R2 specifies that recycling should be done responsibly and offers a rigorous process to make sure that organizations adhere to the standard.

ADISA certification

ADISA stands for Asset Disposal & Information Security Alliance. ADISA carries out audits of companies that desire to become a part of the alliance. It also offers support to companies that are seeking to attain the top in-class control concerning physical security of data-bearing hardware and data sanitization.

NIST SP 800-88 compliance

NIST is the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology. It offers precise and all-inclusive guidance for U.S. government entities and companies to make sure that they follow the best data destruction practices.

Is the vendor good with IT asset recovery?

Organizations need to make sure that their chosen ITAD vendor can depict a track record of returning value to their clients. You need to check the results of the vendor for their other clients. Do not just accept the first offer that you receive. Always shop around and consider a second opinion.

Does the ITAD company possess know-how on compliance and security?

Your chosen ITAD company should have the capability to handle the process of remarketing in a secure and compliant manner. The rising value of data-centered assets and the rise of cloud centers imply that ITAD is not just an exercise in disposal. This also implies that industry experience around information and security is of crucial importance for effective electronic waste recycling.

Here’s a look at the important questions you can ask your ITAD company:

• What industry regulations can you demonstrate compliance with?
• What is the number of secure disposition projects have you completed?
• How do you utilize technology to manage an ITAD project?
• What process checks do you need to guarantee the integrity of the plan?

How Your Business Benefits From The Services Of Hard Drive Destruction

The one thing that is common in all businesses, government agencies, medical offices and multiple other organizations is the usage of computers on an everyday basis. The organizations use computers to store, create, email and share sensitive information. With the expansion of technology, electronic data is enormously increasing. Huge amount of information gets passed around online and is saved on hard drives. Thus, it is vital that you take measures to ensure that your data is safe and there is no risk of exposure. This will ensure that your business does not have any losses.

In case you have been running a business for a long time, you must have realized that in order to attain success, you need to keep up with technology. In case your equipment gets damaged, you are needed to replace it and this will leave your office space with hosts of hard drives lying around. Secure disposal of drives via hard drive destruction services is vital. You might feel that getting rid of hard drives on your own will be cost-effective but this will leave your data at the risk of being retrieved and used for malicious purposes. It is important that hard drives are securely destroyed so that the data present on them can never be retrieved.

When you throw away your hard drives, you leave your company, clients and employees at risk. Hence, it is crucial for your business that you hire a professional company that can carry out the task of hard drive destruction for you. The company needs to be specialized in the right and efficient destruction of electronic data storage media. Let us look at the most important advantages of hard drive destruction:

Data is completely removed

Hackers can easily retrieve data from hard drives that are thrown away, erased or somewhat damaged. A secure data destruction process is needed to make sure that the data on hard drives become unrecoverable. Physical destruction of hard drives acts a                                                              s the sole method of securely destroying drives and making sure that data cannot be recovered. It is important that the process is carried out by a professional company.

Peace of Mind

The effective destruction of your sensitive information will offer you peace of mind that it is disposed of in the right manner. You won’t be at the risk of any expensive data breaches. Your hard drives get efficiently destroyed when you hire a quality, trusted and reliable company.

Frees up office space

Storing old drives in your office just consumes valuable office space. You can easily free up this space by using hard drive destruction services. By hiring a professional you get to save up a lot of time and your job gets done safely and quickly.

Follows the compliance legislation

It is crucial for you to dispose of your sensitive data in the right manner owing to privacy legislations like HIPAA and FACTA. Services of hard drive destruction and electronic recycling are under these legislations. When you follow these legislations, your company remains in compliance with privacy laws and your business does not have to face any risks.

A reliable hard drive destruction company will do the following for you:

• Dispose of your hard drives in a compliant and professional manner
• Record the items that are destroyed and provide clients with a detailed report for complete traceability of their hard drives
• Carry out destruction processes with the help of qualified and trained specialists
• Provide hassle-free and quick services
• Offer services that are in compliance with the WEEE directive waste regulations
• Offer security and safety of your belongings

Other Resources: 4 Things Most People Don’t Realize About Electronic Waste

3 Considerations Of End Of Life Hardware Destruction

What is really going to astound you now are the statistics associated with e-waste. Do you know that close to 1.7 billion smartphones were purchased in the year 2020 alone? This number is going to increase by multiples by the time 2022 begins. We will have produced more than 52.2 million metric tons of e-waste by the year has ended.

The majority of the people in the US upgrade their smartphones and mobile phones almost every 2 years. This means that there is a rising amount of electronic waste that we produce and there is probably no effective way to get rid of it all efficiently. Part of the problem is that we are choosing to turn a blind eye to the hazards electronic waste is putting our environment through at the moment. There is a lot that we still do not know about end-of-life hardware destruction and electronic recycling as a whole. The following section aims to explain a few important considerations when opting for electronic recyclers:

1. Your Negligence Can Cause Data Breach  

It is not a surprise that if we fail to delete all the data on our hard drives and computers, laptops, and smartphones, we run the risk of incurring heavy financial losses. Perhaps one of your employees has left their username and password negligently written down somewhere or at a spot that is accessible to anyone who passes by; this will put their data and important company records at risk. The information that you want to keep safe and secure in your servers and systems will be out in the open for anyone to exploit. You cannot let sensitive company data get into the hands of unreliable and untrustworthy individuals at any cost. This is a major consideration when going for electronic recycling. Mitigation of risk attached to data breaches resulting from callous e-waste management is something that we still haven't been able to ensure.

2. Beware Of Electronic Toxicities  

This is also a factor that you have to be aware of whenever recycling electronics. All the personal tech that we own contains some kind of chemical and harmful compounds within them. The level of mercury and chromium that our environment gets exposed to the moment we discard our electronics is significant. These chemicals and harmful compounds can easily reach us through our water supplies and food. The crops that we grow can get polluted with these chemicals if we do not recycle our old electronics correctly. Yes, our smartphones, computers and printers, and tablets can be very dangerous to us if we do not contain the harmful effects of these gadgets and discard them off in the most environmentally friendly manner.

3. Reusing Usable Devices

The leading electronic recycling providers are of the opinion and even strongly recommend that you should try to find uses for old and obsolete gadgets within your home. Your iPod or perhaps your old iPhone and computer and tablets can be given a new lease of life if you are only able to find original equipment manufacturer-supplied batteries. You can make them usable all over again and prevent them from reaching your landfills a little too early.

Final Thoughts  

We can't be just sitting around and waiting for a miracle to happen. We are constantly releasing several dangerous chemicals into the environment by the way of exposing them to electronic waste that we produce every year. We cannot afford to be negligent with the only planet that we have. It is time we started preserving it by curbing the amount of electronic waste that we produce and also finding better ways to utilize older technologies.

Save Your Environment with E-Waste Recycling

Electronic waste recycling and end of life hardware destruction provide a range of environmental benefits. E-waste includes stuff like printers, computers, stereos, TVs, etc. Commercial places also comprise of electronic waste like imaging equipment, broken dialysis machines, autoclaves, massage chairs, etc.  The waste has become one of the most wildly growing environmental problems across the world. Safe recycling of electronics offers a range of benefits to the environment. Here we will consider the most important environmental benefits of e-waste recycling: 

Decreased mining of virgin materials

A lot of electronic components comprise of metallic elements and minerals that are needed to be mined from distinct mining fields across the world. The nonstop mining of resources leads to their depletion and affects the environment in a negative manner. When you recycle electronic components like circuit boards, significant amount of elements like gold, tin, silver, copper and palladium can be harvested. This results in decreased mining of virgin materials.

Prevention of landfill usage

Landfills are a grave environmental hazard and affect all living beings, be it animals, humans or plants. When you do not recycle e-waste, it ends up with informal and untrained waste operators who dump the waste in landfills. After some time, the toxic, metallic and plastic materials in the electronic waste begin to leech through the ground via landfills and enter the nearby water resources. Electronic recycling reduces landfills that have a negative impact on the environment and water bodies. When you hand over the responsibility of electronic waste to certified e-waste recyclers, you get to ensure that effective care is taken to reuse the elements that can be recycled and reused. 

Safeguard water bodies from toxic waste poisoning 

As discussed above, landfills release toxic chemicals into the groundwater and these chemicals enter the nearby freshwater bodies and wells. This water is then consumed by animals and people who become sick owing to chemical poisoning. E-waste recycling helps prevent a good amount of toxic chemicals from leaching into water bodies and makes sure that water is kept safe and fresh. 

Reduction in air pollution 

Electronic waste recycling helps in reducing air pollution owing to toxic gases. When you ensure that your old and obsolete electronics are recycled effectively and not burned directly, you do your part in making sure that the poisonous gases do not get released into the air. When e-waste is burned, the high temperature on the components leads to the release of poisonous gases into the air which negatively impacts the living beings. 

Save energy and land

When metals are produced from mining ores, a good amount of land and energy are consumed. Drilling of holes underground leads to the places becoming wasteland and this harms the environment. The holes can also destabilize the surrounding grounds when there are heavy rains. When you use the services of an electronic recycling provider to recycle e-waste, you help limit continuous mining and assist the environmentalists save energy and avoid wastage of land. 

Reduction of health hazards on the environment

When electronic waste is disposed of improperly in a place, the local residents experience health problems like skin disease that arise from the improper disposal of electronic waste. When the environment suffers, people suffer too. Effective electronic waste recycling helps in protecting the environment from toxic and hazardous substances that can affect people who utilize these natural resources. You can get rid of environmental hazards from poisonous gases, leeching metals and dust from burning and mining waste by safe recycling of electronic waste. 

Promote fisheries resources

E-waste contains toxins and when the waste is dumped in landfills, it leeches into water bodies and kill fish and other aquatic animals. Electronic recycling reduces water poisoning and keeps the water fresh for plants and animals.  

How Electronic Waste Affects Our Health and the Environment

In order to stay relevant and operational in the market, a lot of businesses today have to rely on electronics. With the increasing demands on business, the need for electronics also increases. Businesses increasingly look for smartest and fastest technologies that can effectively handle their everyday workload. With the increasing speed of technological innovation in the society, one needs to be careful of the way in which they dispose of their electronics when they reach their end of life. It is vital that services of electronic recycling and end of life hardware destruction are utilized to get rid of the electronic waste responsibly. Let us have a look into what e-waste is and how it impacts the environment and our health: 

Insight into e-waste 

Electronic waste or e-waste denotes any electronic device that is no longer functional or useful and has become obsolete. E-waste is considered to be one the fastest growing streams of waste across the world. It comprises of all the unusable, broken and outdated/obsolete components, devices and materials. E-waste also comprises of items that can be effectively recycled with the help of an electronic recycling program that includes electronics that can be easily reused, recycled, salvaged or resold.  

The harmful effects of electronic waste 

A lot of people get a false sense of security with their electronics. They are unaware of the harmful effects that accompany their old electronics. They think that their obsolete devices are non-hazardous. However, this is not the case. The seemingly benign exterior and the sleek surfaces of the old electronics do not portray them as stuff that can present any harm to our health or to the health of the environment. The exterior might mislead you into believing that the substances are safe but it is the interior that makes the e-waste so dangerous. 

The inside of the electronic waste contains harmful substances like lead, mercury, beryllium, arsenic, cadmium and brominated flame retardants. These substances can pose serious health concerns if they are not handled carefully with the help of an electronic recycling provider. The substances can cause severe illnesses, neurological damage and organ damage. The issues are a grave risk to the workers who directly handle electronic waste and present a threat to the communities that are shipped superfluous electronic waste.

Impact of e-waste on the environment 

Electronic waste has a negative impact on the water, soil and air of the earth. 

Impact on water

Electronics like computer batteries and mobile contain heavy metals like mercury, lithium, barium and lead. When these contaminants are disposed of in a landfill or handled improperly, they can leak into the soil and ultimately reach the groundwater. Once they reach groundwater, heavy metals make their way into ponds, lakes, rivers and streams. The heavy metals lead to the toxicity of the water tables and they become unfeasible for plants, animals and communities that depend on them. 

Impact on soil

Soil acts as medium by which heavy metals get water and thus is affected by the harmful contaminants. E-waste leads to a negative impact on the soil which ultimately affects the crop and the food. When soil gets contaminated by heavy metals that seep out of electronic waste, the crops and the food is impacted negatively. This leads to illnesses in humans.

Impact on the atmosphere

Many utilize the burning of electronic waste as a way of disposing it of or of extracting valuable metals like copper from it. Nevertheless, the burning of electronic devices like computer monitors can result in the release of pollutants like heavy metals, brominated dioxins and hydrocarbons into the air. This affects the air quality and our health. Thus, it is vital that electronic recycling services are utilized to handle e-waste reliably. 

How Can You Identify A Professional E-Waste Recycling Company?

 

Electronic waste comprises of computer equipment and other IT assets that are generally utilized in businesses and also certain homes. The disposal of electronic waste needs consideration as it can lead to the leakage of sensitive and confidential information. Hackers and other third party people can retrieve data from e-waste. Thus, it is vital that services of corporate electronic recycling are utilized to dispose of the e-waste in a responsible manner.   

It is vital that you maintain confidentiality by choosing the right electronic waste recycling company that works in compliance with the quality standards and rules for e-waste recycling. Here’s a look at the vital qualities of a professional e-waste recycling company that you need to consider: 

Experienced Staff

Professional and reliable e-waste recycling companies are equipped with highly trained staff. The workers of the company comprehend the concepts that are involved in the recycling of e-waste and you won’t be concerned about the safety of your data anymore. Staff that is qualified well comprehends the significance of not compromising data that pose a business at risk. The staff is knowledgeable about the value of your electronic equipment and will stick to your rules in order to ensure that you are completely satisfied with their services. 

Right equipment

A reputable hard drive destruction or e-waste recycling company has high-tech equipment and the right facilities to make sure that they maintain appropriate quality for recycling electronic waste.  Cutting-edge equipment helps in proving that no data can be retrieved from the electronic gadgets that are getting recycled. In the same way, a company needs to have the right equipment to sort out the electronic waste and pack appropriately depending on the value of the electronic waste. The crucial thing with advanced equipment is that they guarantee that all assets are destroyed successfully which prevents any leakage of data and information.

  

Availability

Availability is a great quality that electronic waste recycling companies are required to maintain in order to keep a good reputation. Companies that are readily available to handle your electronic waste are extremely advantageous, especially when you are dealing with a range of electronics in your business. In the event of an emergency, the recycler should be in a position to cater to your needs and their working hours should be flexible. The availability of a company can significantly diminish the cost of keeping the e-waste in your business. Your business also receives protection from unauthorized people.    

Offers a reasonable price

A reliable e-waste recycling company will not charge you unfairly for disposing of your old and obsolete electronic equipment. The company should permit its clients to negotiate the prices and should also provide discounts to keep their clients happy and attract new clients. Similarly, the recycling company should provide you a reasonable and clear estimation of the all-inclusive price for you to consider for recycling your equipment. You would be working within a specific budget and the recycling company need to ensure that it provides you trustworthy services according to your budget and quality should not be compromised. You won’t be concerned about the pricing anymore as the recycling company will offer you suggestions about the affordable and the most effective mode of payment.  

The employees of today need to work with organizations that do their part for the community and the environment. Recycling of electronic waste is an easy and effective way for an organization to depict its commitment to environmental and social values and reinforce these principles to their employees. Reliable local electronic waste recycling services operate under strict environmental compliance and are certified to carry out their job effectively.