The process of disposing of retired IT assets is fraught with risk. One of the most risky elements of IT asset disposal is compliance with state and federal environmental regulations. On top of regulatory obligations for environmental compliance is the public relations disaster that could occur if your company’s assets were discovered moldering in a landfill, leaching toxic material into the surrounding environment, or even worse, processed under unsafe working conditions at an overseas dumping ground.
In 2012, inspectors in California stumbled upon a warehouse “the size of a football field” where thousands upon thousands of old computer monitors and CRT televisions were piled up. The mess is still being cleaned up, at considerable expense to the state and the warehouse owner. This story appeared on the front page of the New York Times. Old IT equipment, like the monitors in that warehouse, often contains toxic substances, heavy metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium. Because of this toxic threat, governments and regulatory bodies take the environmental aspects of IT asset disposal very seriously. If you are trying to minimize the risk of paying costly fines and suffering negative publicity, your company should take them seriously, too.
Here are some key facts you need to know to ensure the environmental compliance of your company’s IT asset disposal program:
‘Free’ doesn’t always mean free
A number of IT recycling vendors offer to take your assets off your hands at no cost to your company. They say they make their money selling your former assets for scrap. Is it too good to be true? You would be right to be suspicious. Maintaining an environmentally compliant IT recycling operation that ensures the health and safety of it’s workers is more costly than an irresponsible, non-compliant, potentially illegal one. While used IT material often does have value as scrap, it’s not always enough to sustain a compliant recycling business. And if your company has to pay fines for poor recycling practices, your free services could wind up costing your company a fortune.
Downstream matters
Many IT recycling vendors have partners downstream to whom they hand off material to be further processed. IT asset remarketing providers also usually partner with other vendors to recycle the material they can’t sell. From a compliance standpoint, your company is liable for your assets throughout the entire chain of custody, from when they leave your facility to their final disposition. To ensure the compliance of your IT recycling vendor, you need to ensure the compliance of all of its partners. Make sure you know where all the material goes.
Certification: The most reliable way to ensure environmental compliance
No one at your company has the time or the expertise to audit the recycling practices of your IT recycling providers and all of their partners. But you don’t have to rely on your partners’ word that they’re doing the right thing. IT recyclers and remarketers who have gone through the effort and cost of receiving one, or both, of the leading third-party certifications for compliant and safe IT recycling—e-Stewards and R2/RIOS—have demonstrated a commitment to meeting the highest environmental standards throughout their process on an ongoing basis. To receive these certifications, companies must audit their downstream partners as well, and provided documented proof all the material is being processed in compliance with all laws and standards.
Read more about the requirements of e-Stewards and R2/RIOS certifications and their risk-reduction benefits in our free white paper, “The 2013 guide to Environmental Compliance in IT Asset Disposition.”
