09 Aug How adopting a re-use recycling model is the most sustainable form of IT Disposal
We all know that recycling is a great way to help the environment, but many don’t realise how much recycling and re-using can actually accomplish. By recycling old equipment, what you’re doing is reducing the amount of raw material that needs to be taken from the earth to create and produce new items. When you recycle, the packaging or product that you’ve recycled is broken down and processed so that it can become the raw material for a new product without the need for creating air and water pollution. When you re-use an item, even the breakdown process is avoided, making it the most eco-friendly and sustainable option there is.
Recycling is a crucial part of the world, without it, we would only create an increasing amount of waste while harming the environment with chemicals and greenhouse gases. Throwing everything in the bin means that it ends up in landfills across the world; recycling is one of the answers to helping our world’s health. But how can recycling and re-using your IT equipment help the environment? Well, the answer is as simple as what is written above: Recycling anything and everything (that can be recycled) means that less raw material is taken from the earth to create new things.
What To Do Before You Recycle Your IT Equipment
Before you send your IT equipment off to recycling centres, you should consider contacting a data erasure professional. This is because, even if you believe you’ve deleted everything off of your equipment, computer files typically leave behind a footprint of themselves on your hard drive.
It’s almost impossible for someone will little IT knowledge to completely wipe clean their IT equipment. A professional will be able to remove the data using overwriting software or physical drive destruction.
IT Recycling As A Business
Business IT recycling is a tad more complicated than recycling as an individual. A business will have much more waste, and they may even have old IT equipment stored away because they just don’t know what to do with it. This is extremely common in the business world. Though some equipment can be sent back to the original manufacturer to be recycled or reused by them for parts, if a company has a range of equipment from different companies, it may be better to contact a third party that specialises in computer recycling. These third-party companies are experts in compliant IT disposal – some may even have their own offers to delete data for you before they recycle the computers and other hardware that you give them. An IT Disposal partner can be easily found all over the UK, and many are even willing to pick up your equipment themselves. Search for a sustainable IT Recycling company that guarantees they will prioritise re-use and recycling over landfill.
What Does Equipment Re-Use Look Like?
Of course, not everything a business no longer uses, needs to be recycled – it could also be re-used. As a society, we tend to shy away from re-using technology, but there is really no reason to. In business, there are a lot of ways you can re-use your technology and significantly reduce your carbon footprint, including:
- Buying a used or refurbished device, not only means one less device having to be manufactured, it will also extend your IT budget.
- Re-use means no chemicals or carbon emissions are used to recycle your device, taking your environmental impact from small to almost non-existent.
- Sending unwanted devices for refurbishment and re-use could actually end up bringing you a revenue source.
If your aim as a business is to be environmentally conscious, re-use is without doubt the best route to explore, with recycling being a close second. At Charterhouse Muller, we are firm believers in recycling, reusing and refurbishing technology wherever possible. Recycling IT equipment and infrastructure is not only good for the environment, but it’s also a great way to save your business money and work much more efficiently as well. If you would like to find out more, just get in touch with us today.