What really happens to e-waste??
As move coordinators, we actively encourage our clients to recycle their surplus IT equipment. Throwing away IT equipment can pose a huge threat to the environment – especially when you consider the harmful chemicals inside these machines that can leach into soil and ground water. So when we told our clients to drop off their equipment at their nearest computer recycler, we thought we were doing the right thing. Right?? Wrong.
I recently watched a documentary that said that most of the e-waste from the United States is dumped in places like Africa and Asia. The documentary showed images of poor countries that have been turned into computer wastelands. There were piles of old computers and monitors that had almost taken over villages and plumes of smoke from people lighting computers on fire to extract valuable metals. Children played soccer around these piles. I could only imagine the toxicity to these people’s health.
Furthermore, the documentary highlighted people in these countries who specialize in removing confidential information from your old hard drive. It’s very easy for somebody to pull up financial information from your old hard drive even if you’ve taken the time to wipe it clean.
But what can we do? We have to do something with our outdated technology and we can’t just throw it into the landfill. Here are my tips for dealing with your e-waste:
1. Get to know your vendors
Of course, it’s impossible to know everything about the vendors you do business with, but it’s important to ask tough questions and contact references when dealing with recyclers – just as you would any vendor you do business with. Keep in mind that price isn’t the only factor. In fact, an unusually low price might be an indication that your vendor is doing some unscrupulous. In the San Francisco Bay Area, we work with Electrotech Recyclers who have made a commitment to recycle items domestically.
2. Destroy your hard drives
By this, I mean that the only safe thing to do with your old hard drive is to use a hammer and smash it into a bunch of tiny pieces. It can be very satisfying. But if you’re cleaning out your office and have dozens of hard drives to destroy, it can be very tiring as well. For a small fee, companies like Electrotech Recyclers will destroy your hard drives and provide you with a certificate of destruction that you can keep on file for compliance purposes.
E-waste continues to be a problem. The only way to really stop the problem is to forsake all technology which is pretty much impossible in today’s world. And, in some ways, technology even helps to green our planet. Taking the time to make sure that e-waste is disposed of properly is the best way to reduce technology’s impact on the environment and help people in other nations.
