The availability of affordable electronic and electrical devices has undoubtedly had a positive impact on society, making many lives easier. However, it’s also created a problem. Because devices are now so cheap, we tend to throw them away and replace them when they go wrong.
This has led to a worldwide problem with the disposal of e-waste. It’s now the fastest growing type of waste on the planet, with over 48 million tonnes produced in 2018. In the UK less than half of e-waste gets recycled and worldwide the figure is even lower. This is despite the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) coming into force across the EU in 2003.
What WEEE covers
Equipment produced since WEEE came into force carried the crossed out wheelie bin symbol that indicates it shouldn’t be disposed of in general waste. The regulation covers large appliances such as washing machines and fridges, IT and computer equipment, small appliances including kettles and toasters, and other items such as telephones and electronic toys.
For businesses, the main problem is likely to be old computer equipment, phones and mobiles and machines like photocopiers. Most companies will have a corner or a store room somewhere given over to a heap of old and unused equipment.
The reason e-waste is a problem is that it can contain harmful substances that are damaging to the environment if they are allowed to go into landfill. But it also contains substances such as precious metals which can be recovered and recycled. Indeed, there is a growing industry in e-waste mining extracting and selling these substances. An old CRT TV or monitor, for example, can contain around 5 grammes of gold and almost half a kilo of copper so it’s easy to see how such operations can be profitable.
Disposing of E-Waste
So, how can you dispose of your business e-waste? Under WEEE regulations, sellers have to offer the option to take back old kit and dispose of it safely. Newer kit may still be usable, however, so you could look at selling it to a specialist who can explain precisely what happens to it. Alternatively, you could consider donating it to a charity that could make good use of it.
If neither of these options are possible then you need to dispose of your e-waste in a responsible way. There are companies that will collect and safely dispose of WEEE waste and will issue you with a certificate to confirm that it has been properly disposed of.
For smaller items or small amounts of waste, it’s probable that your local council has a facility to accept e-waste at its recycling centres.
Before Disposal
Prior to disposing of any computer or other equipment that could contain data, you need to ensure that you properly purge any information, otherwise you could fall foul of data protection regulation.
It’s important to do this properly. Simply deleting files, or even formatting the hard drive, is not enough as information can still be recovered using specialist software. Modern versions of Windows and MacOS have a built-in feature to allow you to wipe the contents of the drive so that information can’t be recovered. For older machines, there is lots of free software available online that allows you to wipe files or an entire drive. Some of these can be booted from a flash drive or CD, bypassing the PC’s operating system.
In the event that you have an old PC that you can’t start, you still need to verify that it’s hard drive contains no sensitive data. You can try removing the disk and connecting it to another machine. If that doesn’t work, your option is to physically destroy the drive. There are specialists who can do this, alternatively a powerful magnet or a big hammer should do the job.
Of course, PCs aren’t the only devices that contain sensitive data. Networking devices like routers and Internet of Things items will also contain network login details that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. For these, you should perform a factory reset to wipe out any information the device contains.
If you are disposing of old mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, you should also perform a factory reset if the gadget is still usable. However, this may not be totally effective on some Android devices so to make absolutely sure you should perform the reset then load some dummy data that you don’t care about before performing the reset again. Repeat this several times if you want to make absolutely sure.
