Donating Or Recycling – Managing The Problem Of Ewaste Either Way

Electronic waste is not your regular waste stream. It is a major worldwide problem that seems to be growing at a very fast pace. The only solution is if we mend our ways and decide to make intelligent purchases instead of rampant ones. Other than that, a big responsibility that everyone must fulfill is to carefully and ethically recycle this electronic waste every time we feel the need to discard our used electronics. E-waste comprises our used smartphones, computers, laptops, Bluetooth speakers, home assistant, air conditioners, refrigerators, home theatre systems, and DVD players, scanners, fax machines, and a lot more that runs on electricity.

Donating Or Recycling Electronics - Which Way To Go?

You can either choose an electronic recycling Fresno company or simply donate the electronic items that you do not need anymore. Either way, you are going to be helping the environment a lot. Electronic items that you use daily such as computers and radios, toasters, and coffee makers are made from several valuable resources and materials. But when you discard these items in the landfills or out in the open, those very sources turn into poisonous and carcinogenic compounds. When you consider them for further processing, these items are valuable. But when you let these compounds seep into the environment, they can be very harmful to our fauna and flora.

Recycling is a great way to prevent that from happening. Instead of discarding your electronic items, you can gift them to somebody who needs them more.

Do you know that recycling 1 million laptops can save a humongous amount of electricity used in a year? The same amount of electricity can power up nearly 3,500 homes in the US. Also, for every 1 million cell phones that we recycle, close to 35,000 pounds of copper can be extracted from them. Not just this, but 772 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold can be extracted from the same amount of cell phones that we recycle every year. These compounds can be put to better use if you choose a dependable electronic recycling provider in your city.

What Happens To Your Electronics When They Come To The End Of Their Useful Life Cycle?

Unfortunately, the majority of our electronic products do not get recycled. They end up in our landfills which is a very dangerous activity. Close to only 20% of the e-waste that we produce daily, gets recycled ethically and efficiently. According to a study by the UN, nearly 50 million tons of e-waste is discarded every year across the world. Now you know what amount of aluminum, titanium, tin, iron, copper, gold, and silver can be recovered from recycling even 50% of the ewaste that we produce globally.

Final Thoughts

It is going to require a massive change in our attitudes if we genuinely want to eradicate this problem from its roots. Electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream at the moment and the only way to prevent it from expanding further is by spreading awareness about it. Look for solar panel recycling and other dependable electronic recycling services around you. Find out as much as you can about their recycling methodologies. It is time we started paying attention to the condition of our only planet, the one that we call home.

How ITAD Services Help An Organization?

Replacing, reselling or removing your old IT equipment accounts for a huge task and requires the assistance of a reliable service provider. There are multiple things to consider like the sensitive data of your organization, environmental compliances and the logistical compliances. ITAD companies make sure that the rigorous process of disposing of old or obsolete IT assets is carried out in a reliable manner. ITAD vendors provide the below mentioned services:

Data center discovery

When your new IT assets arrive, it is vital to get rid of the old ones and decouple them from your infrastructure. This is an activity that calls for a step-by-step process. The data bearing devices need to be fully uninstalled and stripped of their network access. Specialized contractors, machinery, networking experience, discovery software and good knowledge of data center environments are important ITAD service provider capabilities for the purpose of data center teardowns.

Data erasure

It is vital for corporations to prevent data leak at all costs and safeguard their sensitive information. It is vital that data is erased effectively from all the equipment pieces. Data erasure can be carried out by ITAD services both remotely or on site.

Data security

It is important to consider the speed, expenditures and regulations of distinct options. In certain industries, data erasure is all the more important owing to strict regulations. For instance, companies that offer financial services need to comply with the NIST standard of data erasure in certain cases. HIPAA laws are pivotal in the healthcare industry.

A good ITAD company customizes your requirements of data erasure to the required protocols for data erasure. They also meet the degaussing and hard drive shredding policies your company might have in place.

Transport and logistics

Since servers are heavy, transporting them to disposal sites becomes a huge chore that also introduces the probability of their damage while transporting. Reliable corporate electronic recycling services or ITAD vendors are able to manage a migration of any size within your schedule. They are able to offer you an audit trail and documentation for the disposal of all IT assets.

Asset remarketing

Even though obtaining capital back from surplus IT assets is not a priority for big corporations, it still helps a lot of other organizations. In case your assets do not have a considerable value, the ITAD service should be able to subtract it from your bottom line cost for their services.

Recycling and disposition

When the IT assets have been removed and their data destroyed, you are prepared to dispose of the assets with no value. When you hire the services of an ITAD company, you ensure that your IT assets are disposed of in a safe manner. You need to look for an R2 or E-Stewards certified local electronic waste recycling or ITAD vendor in order to avoid contributing to the rising problem of electronic waste.

When you partner with a trustworthy ITAD partner, you quicken the process of introducing new equipment in your organization. You remove the man hours needed to deal with the tiresome task of data decommissioning and ITAD.

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.