ITAD Best Practices to Reach Your Sustainability Goals

Accelerate towards green

The impact of e-waste on our environment is a top priority for individuals and organizations and is a conversation that remains at the forefront. Especially when in 2019, data indicated that the world generated 53.6 million tons of electronic waste, up 21% in just five years. This is why businesses are taking steps every single day to focus on environmental concerns so they can be part of the bigger solution.

However, implementing a circular economy philosophy that promotes sustainability can be a big mountain to climb due to the rapid advancement of technology and the need for companies to support their growing infrastructure to stay competitive. As a result, we’ve witnessed an overwhelming need for our clients to address and effectively manage eco-conscious ITAD strategies.

What does an overall strategy include? It’s a comprehensive plan to reduce the amount of e-waste in an organization, following secure methods of handling sensitive asset data and gaining a return on investments.

Find out how companies are demonstrating environmental responsibility when it comes to their aging IT assets:

Finding Value in Obsolete Assets

Selling / Remarketing IT Equipment

IT equipment is hiding in all sorts of places and is often forgotten – empty office spaces, storage units and data centers. These end-of-life IT assets can still have a dollar value; however, the longer it sits, the more their value decreases.

Experienced ITAD partners utilize large networks of remarketers, increasing the equipment’s value. A reputable ITAD service will securely transport assets with shipping updates, provide detailed reporting, and certified data wiping. They will go to all lengths to mitigate any security risks around confidential data – this includes such services as data sanitization and on-site hard drive shredding.

Benefit: Extending the life of IT assets reduces the need to manufacture new ones, which minimizes the use of natural resources and reduces the emission of greenhouse gases.

Plus, it also makes business sense. Selling aging IT equipment will help recoup dollars that can go back into purchasing the latest equipment or investing in future projects.

Donate

Some charitable organizations and schools can’t afford to invest in the latest technology and would be happy to take aging hardware off your hands.

Benefit: You can obtain a tax deduction and increase the lifespan of aging equipment.

Certified Recycling

Proper and compliant recycling requires you to know the impact of your materials on the environment. When partnering with an ITAD service, they should only use vetted, downstream vendors who meet the highest environmental and legislative standards and are e-Steward and R2 certified. This ensures your partner is not only taking responsibility for the environment, but they are also securely processing your data-containing devices.

Benefit: Using a certified partner means you feel confident that your equipment doesn’t sit in a landfill. Truly end-of-life assets will be disassembled and distributed to other manufacturing facilities to be reprocessed into finished goods.

Focusing on your ITAD processes and identifying how to reduce your company’s carbon footprint plays a significant role in giving future generations a healthier planet.

Supporting ecological initiatives is a big component of Data Slayer’s environmental mission. We promote sustainability every day to create added awareness around protecting our planet.