The year’s shortest month has returned once again, and love is in the air. February is the perfect time to appreciate the relationships that make our lives whole. While showing love to significant others, friends and family members is the reason for the season, it’s also a great opportunity to show love for the planet by implementing environmentally sustainable business practices, such as properly disposing of outdated, obsolete or otherwise unwanted technology and devices. Read on to discover how electronics recycling is the ultimate Valentine’s gift for Mother Earth.

Will CPU Be Mined?
Most modern electronics use a wide variety of metals like nickel, cobalt, tin and copper as well as minerals like gallium, cassiterite, bauxite and sphalerite — all of which must be mined. International mining operations often ignore regulatory standards and environmental ethics, resulting in substantial harm to local and global ecosystems. Even properly managed mining efforts can cause deforestation, erosion and other dramatic landscape changes. Reusing materials from recycled electronics helps reduce demand for metal mining, and in turn, new mining projects that could harm the planet.

Fill Your Heart, Not the Land
Have you ever stopped to consider where your computers and other office equipment goes once you place it in a standard dumpster or in the municipal trash collection? In many cases, these items are simply compacted with other unorganized refuse and dropped in a landfill to sit indefinitely. The average size of a landfill is bigger than 450 full-sized football fields.* This outdated practice displaces plants and animals from their habitats and prevents humans from utilizing the much needed space. Production of climate change causing greenhouse gases like methane is another major hazard of landfills. Additionally, landfills are usually lined with concrete, plastic or clay, which are susceptible to crack. If and when they do, harmful chemicals like lead and lithium can leach into ground water.

Make it a Date
Having a consistent e-waste disposal plan in place for your business can save you the stress of scrambling to find a solution on the spot. This foresight also prevents long term storage of your tech, which poses similar environmental issues to improper disposal, as well as cyber security and data breach risks. Do some research to find an electronics recycling company that you can trust to process your materials safely and responsibly before the need arises. A few factors worth inquiring about include membership to NAID (The National Association for Information Destruction) as well as certifications for RIOS (Recycling Industry Operating Standard) and R2v3 (The Sustainable Electronics Reuse & Recycling [R2] Standard V3).

At PC Survivors, we proudly hold each one of the credentials mentioned above as well as additional qualifications, including membership to The National Recycling Coalition and i-SIGMA, (International Secure Information Governance & Management Association). Beyond our accreditations, all of our practices meet or exceed compliance standards for handling digital assets set by HIPAA, Gramm Leach Bliley, GDPR and all other applicable legislation.

If you need an electronics recycling partner to turn to, our team is ready to help you.  Call 781-924-3071 or use the contact form here on our website to reach out today.

*Citations:  https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2021/04/15/hidden-damage-landfills