How to Recycle Your Tech Products

The dumping of tech equipment is widely known to be harmful to the environment with the many toxic metals and carcinogenic chemicals that have been identified to leach out into landfills.  Now more states are banning the disposal of electronics into those landfills.  Improper recycling exposes security risks with many of the phones, personal electronic devices and computers that all retain stored critical data. The proper planning of your electronic waste should not be overlooked.

Many companies already provide recycling options for individuals and businesses. You can start by checking with some companies that you already do business with every day.  Dell, Apple, Office Depot, Stables, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T all offer some sort of recycle program for old equipment. The downside to most of these companies is they often only handle their old products and at the same time you are purchasing new equipment.

Best Buy has gone a little further with the Best Buy Trade-in Store.  They offer, “That no matter where you bought it, they will recycle it.” There are some limitations; they will take your old CRT monitors, weather stations, but not your hard drives or waffle makers.  Check their site out for the complete list before heading out the door with that old 8-track tape player because that is a no-go as well.  With the devices they do take they can properly recycle that e-waste and potentially provide a gift card for certain equipment. 

An online alternative is Gazelle, which provides a fast and straightforward way to sell back and recycle your old tech products. They claim to accept over 250,000 different devices. If you go online and search for your old tech products Gazelle will indicate the value and also provide steps in mailing that item back.  They will even send you a box.  If there is no value, they will assist you by still handling the recycling of many old devices.  They are probably a good fit if you have some more current technology that still has some value for you to receive some cash.

E-Structors of Elkridge, Maryland, specializes in secure media disposal and electronics recycling for businesses in the region and across the county.  E-Structors hard drive destructions services meets the information security requirements for HIPPA, SOX, FACTA, CERCLA, and RCRA. They offer a variety of ways on or off premise to securely remove and dispose of out of date technology.  Their enhanced security hard driving shredding creates pieces no larger than 1.5" of your hard drive that is then sent off to the next step in recycling. The resulting materials of steel, glass, plastic and precious metals are then separated into processing for proper recycling.

It can be one cell phone or thousands of old PC's there are many easy, secure options to tackle much of your old equipment.  Remember to remove your data before recycling.

As part of our Managed Services, Ease Technologies facilities the best ways to help our customers dispose of their old e-waste, too. Contact us today to learn more.