Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest growing waste streams today, with the UK generating 1.6 million tonnes* per year, and we are becoming even more reliant on electronic devices for every aspect of our lives.
When devices such as laptops, desktops, mobile phones, medical apparatus, and office equipment are faulty, the vast majority are simply disposed of. This creates even more waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
With technology always adapting and upgrading, if we don’t all start to reduce, reuse, and recycle, this is only set to get worse. Both consumers and organisations need to be accountable for controlling the levels of e-waste that they produce.
What Should You Be Doing?
According to Sue Owens, Head of Supply Chain Services at Daisy Corporate Services “There isn’t a single answer to the climate crisis, or how we can recycle our way out of trouble. We need to look at all methods of recycling. Even the smallest contribution adds up to be part of the bigger picture.
“To make a difference, it’s up to organisations to recycle whatever we can; however, data destruction is critical to the security of your business. Compliance with the WEEE directive and recycling units back into the market, either as components, or broken down into their elements is a huge contributor.”
Ensuring you have a process in place to recycle devices such as laptops, mobiles and other IT hardware throughout your business is a big first step. By recycling devices, not only are you reducing overall emissions by lowering the demand for additional manufacturing, you’ll also be increasing the availability of parts, resulting in long term cost savings.
As Sue mentions, security is an important part of this. It’s not enough simply to recycle devices – those that carry sensitive data will need to be processed to ensure no information can be retrieved once it is repurposed.
Why is Device Recycling Important to Your Organisation?
Recycling your devices isn’t just about the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you’re making a positive change – it’s in the best interest of you and your organisation. Having a robust disposal strategy in place will help you to maintain the long-term sustainability of your organisation, allowing you to stay ahead of inevitable future policy changes requiring organisations to reduce their carbon footprint.
You can also protect your organisation against the risk of fines and reputational damage that might come from not making adequate efforts to be environmentally sustainable. Reputation is always difficult to put a price on, yet recent studies by Larato show that organisations that can evidence a strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance are given a competitive advantage with key decision makers. Meeting your stakeholder’s expectations is also central to maintaining trust and loyalty – whether that’s in relation to consumers, investors, or employees.
An often-unforeseen benefit of device recycling is that some organisations discover new ways of enhancing their resource utilisation. In turn, this reduces operating costs, positively affecting their bottom line.
What if You Don’t Have the Resources for That?
Not every organisation has the time, manpower, knowledge, or access to facilities to manage all of this in house.
We offer a fully certified IT equipment disposal and data destruction service. We will reuse, recycle, or dispose of any equipment in line with your unique asset lifecycle requirements. This can be applied to your whole IT estate, or just part of it. It can also be used in conjunction with vendor trade-in programmes.
We even help you to meet your ESG objectives by renewing and recycling devices as appropriate to return residual value to your business.
Sue Owens explains: “You simply need to identify the assets you want to recycle. We’ll then do the rest, from waste transfer notes to secure transport, data destruction and processing. Many of our customers who recycle their IT every three to four years start to see that the service has either become cost neutral or has even started making them a profit.”
You can learn more here, but if you’d rather discuss your specific needs with one of our specialists, then you’re welcome to contact one of our team on 0344 868 3000 or email us at enquiry@daisyuk.tech.