We’ve seen businesses shift from letting office electronics sit in closets and storerooms to recycling them. Today, the increase in AI computing, cloud migration, and high-performance data centers is causing electronics to depreciate at a rapid rate, before the norm. It’s increasing the amount of e-waste being generated.
Global e-waste is growing faster than the world’s e-recycling facilities can handle. It’s also using up critical raw materials (CRMs) and rare earth elements at dizzying rates. We’ve seen prices skyrocket as chip production and materials struggled to keep up with demand.
Enterprise sustainability is a newer focus that aims to balance the need to properly recycle electronics with a company’s ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) practices. Profitability is not the only focus now. Environmental impact and its societal consequences are equally important.
ERI is focused on the future of carbon-neutral electronics recycling and data security. Learn more about our electronics recycling and ITAD methods, support of the circular economy, and focus on being carbon neutral, and how your company can do the same.
Responsible Recycling and the Circular Economy
What hasn’t been considered until recently is the cost of decommissioning and recycling, and the impact that has on our natural resources and environment. When items are just a few years old, recycling isn’t always the best answer when it comes to your carbon footprint.
Manufacturing just one corporate laptop has a tremendous impact on the environment. The carbon cost includes more than the carbon cost of mining and processing minerals and metals. There’s the power used by machines that manufacture the pieces. Shipping and transportation account for 35% of the nation’s CO₂ emissions.
Once a device reaches its end of life and its data is wiped, there are two options. You could recycle it or fix it, and sell it to someone in need. Instead of buying new, a full lifespan can be achieved, even if it’s better suited to a student user than to a corporate one.
When they’re dismantled, there’s an additional amount of emissions from both electricity usage and emissions from pyrometallurgy that help extract and refine metals collected during e-recycling
It’s important, however, for those metals to be extracted because they can be returned to manufacturers as raw materials. This prevents the need to extract additional minerals, rare earth metals, etc., from the earth.
Urban mining helps harvest important components and materials. It also provides components that can be collected and reused during refurbishment projects. If a laptop is still in good shape except for a scorched circuit board, you could replace the damaged part and resell it.
Enterprise Risk Mitigation: Data Destruction and Applicable Regulations
In the past, ITAD was often overlooked. End-of-life or unused devices were stored in closets or storerooms, where they sat for years before being sent to landfills or scrap yards. Sometimes, items were given away. The priority was getting space in the storage area, not deleting private information.
With companies storing an abundance of data, how they dispose of old electronics is important. If you have employees’ SSNs and dates of birth, customers’ credit card and bank account information, medical records, or driver’s license and passport numbers, you can’t just give away your electronics. You’re responsible for protecting that data.
No matter what your sustainability goals are, you cannot risk a data breach. ITAD services must play a primary role in your recycling and refurbishing efforts. In addition to international data privacy laws such as the GDPR, you must comply with industry-specific regulations. Some of them include:
- Education: COPPA, FERPA, and SOPIPA (California)
- Financial/Banking: FCRA, GLBA, and RFPA
- Medical: GINA, HIPAA, and HITECH
Your role in protecting that data doesn’t end when you stop using a corporate computer, tablet, POS system, or company smartphone. The data on those devices must be protected until you have proof that the data has been destroyed.
IT infrastructure managers need to ensure that ITAD practices are followed. You need a real-time tracking system that keeps an inventory of everything you own, where it is, and its status. When it’s recycled, you need a certificate of destruction that proves it was physically shredded or underwent digital sanitization.
At a bare minimum, your organization needs to partner with ITAD and electronic recycling providers who hold e-Stewards, R2, and SOC 2 certifications. This is the first step to satisfying your data governance responsibilities and corporate ESG goals.
Managing Emissions and Your Carbon Footprint
Managing your carbon footprint is important when recycling unneeded business electronics. It’s required under greenhouse gas (GHG) protocols. You have to measure and report your direct and indirect emissions.
- Direct (Scope 1): Emissions from your company-owned assets and vehicles.
- Indirect (Scope 2): Emissions from your utilities like electricity and HVAC.
- Value Chain (Scope 3): Emissions from asset manufacturing and production, and end-of-life processing.
ERI addresses your corporation’s GHG responsibilities by operating as a carbon-neutral ITAD and e-recycling specialist. We operate facilities across the U.S. to reduce transport distance and invest in energy efficiency.
We also provide our corporate clients with ESG impact reports. You’ll have verifiable records of greenhouse gas emission reductions, diverted landfill mass, and other essential metrics that prove your sustainability efforts.
A Better Strategy for Modern Enterprise ITAD
Achieving enterprise sustainability requires more than electronics recycling. You need to choose a partner who is equally dedicated to the environment. From ITAD-compliant data destruction to a strong focus on reuse and urban mining, the company you choose for decommissioning and electronics recycling needs to be dedicated to reducing its carbon footprint as well.
Ideally, you want to follow this sustainability plan.
- Choose assets that are modular and easy to repair.
- Use preventative maintenance to keep your electronic devices working well for as long as possible.
- Pick a company that provides real-time tracking showing the chain of custody when devices leave your building.
- Use ERI’s additional services, such as on-site ITAD and processing in a carbon-neutral facility.
ERI Is Your Partner in E-Waste Collection and Recycling
We ensure that our sustainable electronics collection, ITAD, and recycling processes are fully traceable online. You have the information you need to know where things are at every step of the way. OpTech™ also provides an environmental report!
This framework allows you to recycle electronics with confidence, even if the most rigid security standards are required. Get money back on the items that still have value, and know that everything else is going into the recycling stream for reuse. Reach ERI today to learn more about our ITAD and electronics recycling.