What You Don't Know About Ewaste Recycling Can Hurt You
Imagine yourself reading your newspaper and coming across an advertisement for a “free” collection drop off day for computers and electronics over the weekend and saying to yourself: “It’s about time I get rid of those old computers in the basement”, and then proceeding to load up your car with the materials with three things on your mind:
- Finally I am going to make this stuff go away
- It won’t cost me money
- It feels good to recycle instead of throwing away
This story starts out great with the ideal of recycling and the hope that everything is going to be just fine. What’s missing in this story is what actually happens and what questions should be asked first before dropping off your computer.
Many times the entity that is offering the “free” collection day is exactly that, a “collector” of materials and not a processor. And this fact is the beginning of what can be frightening to the average person or company. Reason? Because if the collector only collects materials, then who is actually processing your computer? And when you don’t know who has your materials and what they are doing with them, then anything is possible including having your identity stolen.
Here’s what happens in a lot of cases: First you drop off your computer to the collector for “free”; this is the same as giving your private information, credit cards and bank account information to someone who you don’t know and then, they will send it off to another entity, sometimes a processor, sometimes not, who then now has your computer and has no contractual obligation to you to do the right thing with your hard drive, like destroying the data, nor do they have an obligation to actually recycle.
Too often, they are free to sell your stuff to anyone, including entities that might ship your monitor to countries like China or Lagos or worse, they might sell your pc to the wrong person who may have the right equipment to retrieve your data even if you have taken the time and invested in having the drive erased.
You might consider buying a data erase application at the store for $49-$69.00 but then you have to do all of the work and then recycling isn’t exactly free then. Also, even when a hard drive is erased to Department of Defense specifications, all too often the information is easily retrieved. Want proof? Just contact any of the Data Recovery companies in the US to find out how easy it is with the right tools.
Remember that while you are making this call to the professional recovery people, consider the fact that they are not the only people who have this technology. Crime today in many cases centers around three things: those that have information, those who have access to information, and those who can get information.
QUESTION: If you give your pc and monitor away in a “free” collection event, what makes you think you are getting valuable services like hard drive shredding to eliminate the possibility of data loss of identity theft, or actual recycling processing of your monitor?
Many of us have heard the term: “You get what you pay for”. And in this case when you pay nothing, you get nothing but the possibility of someone stealing your identity or sending your stuff to “burn fields” in China or East Africa.
So what can you do that protects then environment and better still, protect you at the same time? Isn’t there a win-win process? Fortunately the answer is yes.
First you need to know who is actually going to process your materials and how. Meaning will they shred your hard drive to eliminate the data loss problems? Will the processor actually dismantle your monitors or other electronics so the parts and components, or even commodities will be reused or reprocessed into new products? If not, you won’t want to give your materials to that “collector” or even processor if they can’t or won’t answer your questions.
Second, ask the collector or processor whether they have downstream processors who fulfill the recycling for them. If they do, you might want to know who they are and ask them a number of questions to be sure that they are doing the right things with your materials.
Third and most important, you as the consumer or business owner or manager, need to embrace the notion that recycling is not “free”. And that in order to be “Green” and safe, an investment in recycling needs to be budgeted for.
Example: If you drop off your pc for free and risk having your identity stolen; then what is the value of getting your identity back? Note that over 37,000,000 data loss claims were reported in 2008. Versus investing $5 to have your hard drive shredded so it guarantees you protection against losing data. Thurston J. Hartford is CEO of Ewaste Technology Management, LLC located in Cranston RI. He can be reached at thartford@etmgreen.com.
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