Press Release
10 Top Tips
How to select your IT Asset Recycling Company
The imminent Waste, Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Directive will legally require all businesses to dispose of their IT equipment in a responsible and environmentally friendly way. You need to ensure that your business remains risk free when you take steps to adhere to the legislation.
The Directive’s aim is to reduce the impact on landfill so you will need to find alternative ways of disposing of old IT equipment, probably through a third party who can give it a new lease of life on your behalf.
End-O-Line Services, the largest independent IT equipment recycling company in the UK, is celebrating its 10th anniversary and operates a zero landfill policy. Managing Director, Jan Smith offers 10 pointers on how to ensure your company can navigate the WEEE Directive to stay risk free and legal.
1. Steer clear of cowboys
When you are choosing a supplier to dispose of your redundant IT equipment check them out thoroughly. There are already cowboy firms out there claiming falsely that their general scrap operation has expertise in IT equipment disposal. When the WEEE Directive comes into force there are likely to be more amateurs emerging. Look for a company that can demonstrate it has already established a good reputation with its customers.
2. Look for professionalism in every aspect
Avoid the man-in-a-white-van operation that might even charge you to take the equipment away and then just dump it or sell the best pieces on without erasing the data. Your commercially sensitive data – and your reputation – is at risk if the old equipment is discovered illegally dumped and traced back to your company. You will always remain liable as the producer.
3. Don’t risk your reputation
Ensure the company providing the recycling service can guarantee to erase completely all the data on your computers before it is recycled. Many companies believe their in-house software can completely erase all the data on a hard drive. Often it looks as if data has been permanently deleted but an expert could still retrieve it. Remember, fax equipment can also hold corporate information that could be as commercially sensitive as the data on your PCs.
4. There should be no hidden cost surprises
High-quality equipment should be recycled on your behalf at no cost to you. When it comes to disposal of older computers you should expect a clear and straightforward pricing structure in advance that has no hidden costs or charges.
5. Look for the documentation that keeps you legal
A professional company will demonstrate their processes and provide detailed reports showing the full life cycle of your IT equipment.
6. Horses for courses, as always
The company, which also picks up old fridges and washing machines, is unlikely to have the specialist knowledge of handling IT assets. If they handle hard drives in the same way they handle TV monitors your sensitive data could resurface.
7. Proper handling
A professional company’s collection team will protect the equipment with appropriate packaging so it does not sustain damage en route, which could reduce its potential for a future life.
8. It’s the little details that count
A good service will have collection staff who are helpful, understand IT equipment, inter-act well with your own staff and enhance your image rather than diminishing it. Uniformed staff and liveried transport will enhance your image rather than diminish it. If you want unidentifiable transport, they should be happy to oblige.
9. Check their credentials
A professional IT asset disposal company will be as dedicated to quality as your own business. It will have all the top business and environmental accreditations in place plus a robust relationship with the Department for the Environment. Ask for copies of these certificates AND those of their sub-contractors.
10. Convenient to you
Don’t accept if they try to impose their schedule on your business. IT equipment disposal is just as important as all your other processes, so look for a quick response to your needs and expect them to stick to a collection time that suits you.