Protect your business with secure e-waste disposal
Over the years, I have often wondered where used IT equipment ends up; being in the Industry; you have an eye for it. You see it in particular areas at council tip sites, and you see a skip bin full of it occasionally when in an industrial estate. But, apart from wondering where it ends up, I also wonder if the equipment would still work and if it did what I could find on it. What stories would it have to tell?
E-waste is Australia’s fastest-growing waste stream – fueled by high consumption rates, shorter lifecycles, and limited repair options. When you look at the amount of hardware each person uses every day, it comes as no surprise that businesses generate a large amount of e-waste and huge potential to contribute to the growing e-waste crisis.
In the spotlight for not doing enough to recycle and reuse old hardware are small to medium businesses due to lack of knowledge and concerns over cost.
Recycling e-waste is just as important as any other waste stream and one of the most critical waste streams to recycle correctly. E-waste contains toxic chemicals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic that pollute our soil and water and disrupt our ecosystems. When recycled correctly, valuable resources, including gold, steel, copper, zinc, aluminium, and brass, can be recovered and recycled into new products.
While recycling e-waste is the right thing to do for the environment, businesses have a further issue to consider – data security.
Data destruction and security
Unfortunately, many businesses aren’t paying enough attention to how they dispose of their old hardware, opening the organisation up to a possible data breach. Stored data is a valuable asset to be discarded carefully at the end of its useful life.
The key reasons to securely wipe hardware are to help safeguard privacy and prevent data leakage when disposing of, donating, returning, or reselling old hardware. Be wary of those who say, ‘I’ll dispose of this for free’ - it’s essential to go with an operator that offers secure, compliant disposal with serial number capture and a certificate of destruction.
We’ll take care of the old so you can focus on the new
The Missing Link believes it’s important to ‘be the change you want to see in the world,’ so minimising our impact on the environment is an intrinsic part of our business. As a responsible IT company, we strive for maximum life from our infrastructure and reuse where possible. By following our ISO 27001 compliance, we securely wipe sensitive data permanently from our hard drives, SSDs, desktops, laptops & servers before disposing of them according to recycling guidelines.
We know sustainability is also important to our customers, so we consider both the client’s lifecycle requirements and power consumption when recommending solutions. The Missing Link also offers a disposal service once the hardware is at the end of its useful life – handling the pick-up, data sanitisation, and responsible recycling. Our IT Procurement solution can enable your businesses to use the latest technology at a lower cost while contributing to a sustainable circular economy.
We work closely with you to understand your business environment, goals, and lifecycle requirements to advise you on the most effective solution from the get-go. Then, with strong supplier relationships, we source the hardware, install, tag, and provide consistent support to ensure it remains up to date and compliant. Importantly, we help you responsibly and securely retire hardware that is no longer needed – and find alternative solutions that continue to meet your evolving business requirements.
Click here to learn more about our flexible, scalable, and cost-effective procurement solutions that support your business growth.
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