If you’re involved with planning for the disposition of your company’s retired IT assets, you’ve probably heard the terms e-Stewards, e-Stewards certification, or e-Stewards standard used in regard to finding a vendor that will dispose of your equipment according to all environmental regulations and best practices. If your team is already talking about e-Stewards, you’re on the right track. The e-Stewards standard is a leading and very comprehensive environmental standard in the electronics recycling industry.
Why does the e-Stewards standard exist?
The e-Stewards Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment was developed by the activist group the Basel Action Network (BAN) in response to the growing environmental, health, and safety threat posed by the irresponsible disposal of electronics equipment. BAN called on members of the recycling and asset recovery industries, environmental experts, and occupational health and safety advocates to help create this standard.
What are the e-Stewards standards?
Now in its second iteration (the standards underwent a major revision in 2011 to reflect the latest technological developments), the e-Stewards standard builds off ISO 14001, the global standard for environmental management with rules specific to the recycling of electronic waste. To receive e-Stewards certification, IT recyclers or remarketers must follow strict requirements against exporting or landfilling electronic waste. One of the most important features of the e-Stewards standard is that it follows the recycling process from the beginning through to final disposition; to qualify, a company must document the activities of its downstream partners to ensure they are in compliance will all applicable laws and standards, as well.
Other requirements of the e-Stewards standard forbid the export of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries, require safe practices to protect the workers that handle the retired IT assets, call for compliance with the NIST 800-88 standard for data sanitization (the US government standard for secure data destruction), and require that all refurbished and remarketed equipment is functional and whole.
What does it take to become e-Stewards certified?
Certification for the e-Stewards standards represents a significant investment of time and money on the part of electronics recyclers and IT asset disposition providers. The e-Stewards website presents a rigorous 10-step process with ongoing annual audits. All audits are conducted by third party certification bodies – the same ones who conduct audits for ISO certifications. Certification for companies with multiple sites is even more complicated and costly. Because of the time, effort, and cost associated with becoming certified, companies that go through the process demonstrate that they are committed to responsible and safe electronics recycling practices and they are a reliable choice for handling your company’s used IT equipment.
What else does an environmental compliance team need to know about IT asset disposition?
For a complete guide to the environmental issues associated with the disposal of retired IT assets, download our free white paper, “The 2013 Guide to Environmental Compliance in IT Asset Disposition.”
