Remote work isn’t new. People have been working from home for decades, but the pandemic brought its convenience and value to light. Before the pandemic, an estimated 6.5% of workers for private businesses worked from home. By 2022, almost half of the workforce in four specific industries – computer systems design/services, data processing, information services, and internet publishing – worked from home.
Despite suspicions regarding productivity, remote workers work as hard, if not harder, as workers in an office building, warehouse, etc. Productivity increased, and it wasn’t taking longer to meet goals. People were getting work done faster when there were no distractions and interruptions from co-workers.
Plus, remote work helped businesses save money as they didn’t need to rent office space or use as much electricity or heating fuel. However, it increased the amount of electronics needing to be recycled. The e-waste generated from remote work cannot be ignored.
Electronic Device Turnover Increases in Households With Home Offices
Remote work provided benefits, but there was a downside. The amount of e-waste grew. As home offices were set up, new equipment like desktops, laptops, multiple monitors, printers, webcams, and business-only phones became necessary. Older home computers were set aside for newer, faster, more powerful models. These older electronics create e-waste.
Look around a typical home office. In mine, you have a laptop, desktop with two monitors, a wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, Bluetooth speaker system, air purifier, MFC printer, tablet, phone, and smart bulbs. Head out to the garage for old electronics, and there is a broken TV, old laptops, multiple LED and CFL bulbs, old lamps, old phones, and older external hard drives. Many people let electronics build up before they consider recycling them. It’s better to recycle them when there’s still potential value for reuse.
When you’re mixing company electronics and your spouse’s, partner’s, children’s, roommate’s, sibling’s, parent’s household electronics, it’s important to keep careful records of who owns what and what company policies are for each device’s end-of-life handling. Your office electronics often store private data that could lead to severe penalties if data is stolen or improperly stored. Broken or unused office electronics need to be recycled immediately and not tucked into a closet, garage, basement, or attic for years.
Proper Care and Maintenance Expand the Life of Your Office Electronics
Before you throw an item aside for recycling, make sure you’ve done all you can to extend its life. Regular maintenance like cleaning the keyboard, clearing out air intakes and fans, and clearing desks of dust, hair, and crumbs helps with longevity.
Run software updates as soon as you can. If you get an alert that an update is ready, don’t wait weeks to install it. Patches and software updates help keep your system running and are often essential to the device’s security.
Take care to store your device correctly when it’s not in use. Don’t leave a laptop where your toddler can reach it. Don’t set a company smartphone near a sink or other area where it could fall and get wet. Close your laptop screen when you’re taking a break, especially if you have a cat that might bump it. If you leave your home with a company laptop or phone, don’t leave it in a hot or freezing cold car for an extended amount of time.
Problems in E-Waste Management Across the U.S.
As of 2022, e-waste generation stood at just about 47 pounds per person. If you break that down, a laptop’s average weight is around 5 pounds. In terms of weight, that 47 pounds is the equivalent of 9 laptops being disposed of per person. That’s so much metal, plastic, and glass that must be recovered, yet there are still 25 states that haven’t passed laws mandated recycling. If any of this ends up in a landfill, it’s wasteful and damaging to the environment.
Electronic waste contains many metals, including dangerous heavy metals. What’s in them depends on the age of the electronic item, but a CFL bulb contains mercury. Old thermostats have mercury. You’ll also find cadmium, lead, and nickel in electronics. While landfills are lined, it’s too soon to tell exactly how long a liner will last. A century later, e-waste that’s been sitting buried in a landfill for years might start leaking leachates into a degraded liner, and those toxic metals end up in the soil and groundwater.
Every electronic that ends up in the landfill poses a potential threat to future generations. A Massachusetts baseball complex was constructed on top of an old landfill that closed in the 1980s. In 2025, glass and metal fragments were discovered when workers went to install new lighting. Tests found high levels of arsenic, lead, PCBs, and zinc in the soil where children played.
While today’s landfills are lined, the lifespan is just an estimate. The EPA estimates they will only last 400 years. Others believe that in severe weather conditions, they may only last a few decades. Recycling your unused electronics protects the earth, its people, its plants, and its animals.
People with home offices often have more electronics than the usual household. They often contain customer files, private emails, and other PII. This makes it incredibly important to make sure electronics are recycled responsibly and correctly.
Make Sure You Recycle E-Waste Responsibly
If your state doesn’t mandate electronics recycling, you shouldn’t throw items in the trash. Instead, search for area recycling facilities that accept e-waste. Even if your recycling facility or curbside companies don’t take them, retailers like Best Buy and Staples do. Lowes and Home Depot accept most batteries in a free drop-off box.
ERI offers prepaid shipping containers that you purchase online. Fill the box, contact our secure delivery service for pick-up, and send your electronics to us for environmentally-friendly recycling that protects people, the planet, and your privacy.
Companies may want to collect all business electronics and arrange for us to destroy data at your place of business before it’s transferred to our nearest facility. If your items are still usable, ask us how to get money for the items you recycle. The money you get for items that hold value helps lower your cost of data destruction and data center decommissioning projects. ERI is here to help you recycle home office equipment correctly while supporting the circular economy.