Have Old Electronics You No Longer Want? Be Sure to Dispose of them Properly

It’s inevitable to eventually find yourself sorting through old personal belongings wondering what to keep and what to donate or toss. As far as electronics go, we as a society are constantly upgrading devices to have the latest and greatest which is all fine and dandy, but what happens to your old cellphone, laptop, TV, or other electronic device once you’ve purchased their replacement? Sadly, many individuals will take the garbage route and toss these items alongside their day-to-day garbage, which ultimately means electronics make their way to the landfill.

The problem here is that this is an environmentally concerning way to manage old electronics. Not only is the environment at substantial risk when this occurs, you also leave your data vulnerable to getting stolen. The best way to alleviate both of these is through hiring a professional electronic destruction service.

 hard drive disposal

Environmental Risks

You probably know that electronic are dangerous to the environment, but do you know just why they have such a negative impact?  The many components of electronic devices comprise a great deal of hazardous materials. In fact, heavy metals and airborne dioxins will make their way into water supplies, road side dust, and the air when electronics are sent to the landfill and left to decay. Not only do these toxins hurt our environment, but when ingested through water and air, their effects on humans are carcinogenic.

Key hazardous components found in electronics include:

  • Lead
  • Mercury
  • Beryllium Oxide
  • Cadmium
  • Brominated Flame Retardants

Take a look at this report for a more thorough breakdown.

Data Breaches

Damages from electronic waste can occur to more than just our environment. Stolen sensitive information is a common, and not always noticeable, consequence of improper electronic disposal. Many of us feel that deleting data is enough to wipe all documented data; unfortunately this belief is very much incorrect.  Data recovery software and methods are more than capable of retrieving information from electronics.

Due to the nature in which data is created and stored on a hard drive, deleting a file or program doesn’t truly remove it from the system. When you save a file, space is allocated in the hard drive and a directory is created that point to its location. Deleting a file simply removes the directory listing and lists the space as available for something else to be saved over it. In this way old data will eventually be replaced with something new, but there are no guarantees that it’ll be unrecoverable. As you can see, just because you’ve hit delete, you aren’t really safe from all the risks of data theft.

The Best Solution

The best approach to ensure your data can’t be recovered, while also ensuring the environment is safe, is physically destroying your electronic devices. This doesn’t mean you should grab the nearest sledgehammer and attack your old cell phones. Odds are your efforts won’t be enough to destroy everything, not to mention the issue of how to now dispose of a million pieces scattered across your garage. Partnering with a company, like Shred A Way, that provides reliable hard drive destruction services is your best bet.

Media destruction services provided by our professionals will take your old electronic media and shred them in industrial shredders. This reduces the electronics into tiny pieces, far too small for anyone to do something with. Once completed, the left overs are sent to be recycled, the raw material is then removed and reused in new products. This not only keeps electronics away from our landfills but also ensures your data is safe from theft.

Shred A Way is a document destruction company servicing Columbus, Auburn, Montgomery, Birmingham and more.  We are proud to keep residents and business in Georgia safe from data theft while protecting the environment.

If you are looking for safe media disposal solutions, contact us today. We are happy to help!

Contact us today at 706-577-9668

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