Help the Environment by Selling Your Used IT Equipment

As a responsible business owner, you naturally want to do your best to protect the interests of your customers, as well as your company. This means taking pains to live up to standards for privacy protection. Privacy laws exist to ensure that the confidential information your customers entrust to you is kept safe from cyber criminals that would use it for identity theft. This means using proper protections for digital data, such as firewalls, password protection, and encryption, as well as properly disposing of outdated equipment like hard drives when you upgrade to newer technology. Of course, you can’t just throw computer parts away. This not only violates privacy laws and opens the door to data breach and identity theft, but it also fails to comply with environmental standards regarding e-waste. One viable option is to partner with a trusted and certified IT asset disposition (ITAD) service provider to shred and recycle your hard drives, maintaining compliance with both privacy and environmental laws. However, you could also elect to wipe, refurbish, and sell used IT equipment. How does this help the environment? Reduce Toxic Waste Computers, monitors, and other digital devices could contain any number of toxins that you don’t want to release into the environment. Lead, chromium, beryllium, cadmium, and mercury are some of the most toxic materials commonly found in computer equipment, and they are the reason it is illegal to simply dump electronics, instead of recycling them. When toxins are released into the air (such as through burning PVC coating on wires to get at the copper within), they enter the water supply, or they seep into the soil, they can contaminate ecosystems in all kinds of ways, disrupting food chains and causing untold damage. By utilizing proper channels of recycling, or better yet, finding ways to repurpose old computer equipment, you do your part to avoid contributing to this growing environmental issue. Give Old Equipment a Second Life If you want to shred and recycle old hard drives and other computer equipment to ensure the security of confidential information, you’re well within your rights to do so, and you will comply with applicable privacy and environmental laws. However, if you’re looking to do more, you can reduce waste even further by finding ways to reuse old equipment instead. The right ITAD service provider can wipe your drives in compliance with privacy laws and refurbish your equipment for resale, giving it a second life. When end of life has been reach for your equipment, a no-landfill facility like SEAM will make sure everything is recycled and doesn’t end up as waste. Recoup Some Cost You might think that doing your part for the environment is going to cost you, but when you decide to sell used equipment instead of shredding and recycling it, you actually stand to recoup some of your initial cost for purchase, which is a nice bonus. You simply have to partner with a reputable and certified ITAD service provider like SEAM to ensure security and transparency at every turn. Contact SEAM at 605-274-SEAM (7326) today to find out what they can do for your Sioux Falls area business.