Computer Recycling for Business: How to Prepare E-waste for a PC Recycler and IT Liquidators

Has your company been ready to get rid of its old IT team but aren’t quite sure where to start? It’s very common to have a handful of questions that keep you from getting started, such as: Does it cost to recycle our e-waste or can we get paid for it? How can we ensure that our electronic products are processed in an environmentally friendly way? How can we ensure that our sensitive data is erased and destroyed?

Electronics Recycling and IT Asset Recovery

First, it’s important to understand the difference between e-waste recycling and IT asset recovery. E-waste recycling means breaking down electronic products into their original base materials through the process of grinding, separating and refining. This part of the industry profits from the sale of the basic materials extracted and refined from electronics. These materials consist of steel, aluminum, platinum, gold, copper, plastic, etc.

IT asset recovery is when a company purchases retired IT equipment from another company for the purpose of reselling the equipment as whole units or in parts. This equipment can be purchased directly from the owner or sold on consignment to the owner through the IT asset recovery company. IT asset recovery will generally give you a much higher return for your IT equipment as it is sold for reuse meaning the product still has market value and can be sold as refurbished or used for a new end user at through what is called the “second hand market”. This is why it’s important to give your local e-waste recycler only equipment that is already obsolete while sending your mid- to high-end equipment to a computer liquidator, IT asset recovery, or consignment company that can pay you for your equipment on the basis that it can be resold on the second-hand market.

There are many companies that offer electronics recycling and IT asset recovery services and solutions that can be used as a single point of contact for all your IT asset disposal needs. Therefore, the first step is to keep valuable equipment separate from obsolete equipment. Make sure you have designated gaylord pallets and boxes for certain types of items wherever your business stores your retired IT equipment and old electronic waste. Keep old CRT monitors separate from LCD monitors. Keep PI PII and PIII computers separate from P4+ computers. When it comes to servers and networking equipment, it can be a bit tricky to figure out what’s worth it and what’s not. Keep these types of IT equipment separate and make sure you have a make, model and condition audit list for this type of equipment. This will allow you to send your listing to a potential asset recovery specialist who can respond to your listing with a buyout quote. You don’t want to just toss a $10,000 server into the “electronic trash” bin.

data security

Data security is often one of the most important aspects when disposing of retired PCs, servers, cell phones, or any IT equipment that contains data storage such as hard drives, tape drives, flash drives, memory cards, etc. . The question is: will you erase and destroy the hard drives in-house, or will you outsource the task to a computer recycler or IT asset recovery company? This depends a lot on time and space. Some companies don’t have time to spend on such tasks because they are preoccupied with their core business. If you don’t mind keeping data eradication an internal task, the DOD (department of defense) standard data eradication software is probably the best option for you. The cheapest and easiest way to do this is to use industry standard software called dBan. Depending on the capacity of the hard drive, this process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours per drive. The other alternative is to outsource this same procedure to an asset recovery company or have them physically shred the hard drives for you. Depending on the carrier, this service can range from $5 to $20 per hard drive.

EPA Compliance

Ensuring that your business processes its materials through a recycler that complies with state and EPA regulations is a responsibility that must be taken seriously. It’s very easy to check the credibility of the company you intend to work with by checking the databases of state and EPA-licensed e-waste recyclers. There are also a handful of private sector alliances that have created seals and certifications that represent an operating standard for companies that commit and sign to operate under those standards and are audited and assessed to ensure that they are actually operating in accordance with their commitment. . The most popular of these organizations would be e-stewards and BAN (Basel Action Network). Follow the instructions and information above and you should be ready to go. It is not a very complicated task, it is only important that you do a small handful of steps correctly. Finding the right company will streamline the entire process, from pick-up to checkout, allowing you to free up office and warehouse space while receiving a good return on your initial investment.