There’s a pretty good chance that even if you run a smaller business, you’ve got at least one computer system set up along with an assortment of other electronic devices, such as a printer or an external hard drive. This is at the bare minimum, of course. Eventually, those electronic devices become outdated and you’re going to want to upgrade them.
However, the last thing you should do is to throw away your old electronic devices when you replace them with new ones. Instead, you should recycle them using a professional electronics recycling service. The following are four main reasons why you should recycle your electronic devices using a reputable, trustworthy electronics recycling service:
1. Electronics Contain Hazardous Chemicals
Simply throwing your electronics away is not environmentally responsible. This is because electronics contain chemicals that are hazardous to the environment. In fact, many states–such as California–have made it illegal to simply throw away electronic devices. It’s also worth noting that if you don’t recycle through a certified electronics recycler, your electronic devices may end up in a third world country where they are not capable of processing the waste effectively, leading to environmental issues as well as poisoned water supplies.
2. Some Components Can Be Reused
Electronic devices contain a lot of components that can be reused for the manufacturing of other electronics. For example, circuit boards contain copper, silver, tin, and gold. These metals are very valuable and can be easily reused if they are properly extracted.
3. Save Space in the Office
A lot of companies will simply store old electronic devices in a storage space, such as in a storage room, basement, or attic. Some businesses even rent out additional storage space where they will store old electronics. Because of how fast technology advances, electronic device upgrades are constantly hitting the market. If you’re regularly updating your electronic equipment while storing old equipment in storage, you’re going to find that your old equipment is going to take up a significant amount of space. By recycling your old electronic equipment instead, you can save a significant amount of space that can be used much more efficiently.
4. Ensure Data is Destroyed Securely
Almost every business stores some kind of sensitive data on their computers. Even simple employee information contains social security numbers that can be used to commit identity fraud. Unfortunately, simply deleting this information off of a computer won’t permanently get rid of the information. Hackers can run specialized software programs to retrieve deleted data. As a result, throwing away electronic devices is going to leave your business vulnerable to potential information theft. By recycling your electronic devices through a certified electronics recycling service, you’ll ensure that your electronic equipment is properly destroyed so that any data that may have been stored on it will not be retrievable.
As you can see, recycling your electronic devices is a good idea. Make sure that you do so with an electronics recycling service that you can trust. Here at AccuShred, we use state-of-the-art electronics shredding equipment and will provide a certificate of destruction. Additionally, we are certified by NAID (National Association for Information Destruction). For more information about our electronics recycling services, be sure to contact us at AccuShred today.