The Bulletin
Technical Tips
By Tom Synder Ph.D.

Support your Community and Go Green:  Donate or Recycle your Old Equipment

The scenario: A firm announces plans to downsize its workforce by 7 percent, eliminating hundreds of positions. One assumes the firm will rid itself of the PCs, monitors, and other hardware those employees had been using. But how? Donate them? Trash them? Dump them in the river?

Getting rid of old equipment is actually a big problem. For one thing, there's the data: With the 2002 passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, public companies are accountable for what happens to their data, and they can be held liable should confidential information leak out. Small businesses aren't accountable to the law, but the goal—reducing risk—is easy to appreciate.

Wiping data is manageable enough, but doing so on hundreds of computers is much more challenging. One could just bash the drives with a hammer, of course, but experts can actually pull information off mangled, fragmented, or even burned hard drives. In fact, to be safe, the elements in a hard drive really need to be ground down to a fairly fine level, using a special-purpose commercial grinder. Several companies will deliver these grinders to your business. EDR Solutions sells a portable device called the Hard Disk Shredder that can pulverize over 60 disks per hour. Of course, it sells for over $11,000.

There are also environmental regulations, such as California's Electronic Waste Recycling Act, Europe's RoHS—Restrictions on Hazardous Substances Directive—and others that prohibit tossing PCs out with the trash. Computers contain trace quantities of hazardous substances and in bulk the traces add up. Throw in the lead inside those bulky CRTs many companies are ditching and you begin to get the picture: Two challenges, each a potential legal nightmare, both looming over any company with a closetful of old PCs.

The sad fact is, many firms stock pile old systems pending a better solution. We worry over how green our new products are, but too often we forget the old mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. In addition to buying new, eco-friendly products, let's make sure to get rid of the old stuff responsibly.

As long as small businesses are aware of the issues they face, they should be able to resolve them on their own. Wiping a drive or two takes no more than a couple of hours, and freeware apps such as BC Wipe (www.jetico.com) eliminate every trace of content using Department of Defense–certified algorithms. Recycling or donating a few PCs is as easy as calling a local charity or recycling center (www.otxwest.org). But even small businesses should take a few minutes to consider what they can simply throw out and what they must destroy. Hard drives, used optical discs, flash drives, cell phones, audio- and videocassettes, and other data storage devices pose potential data-security problems. So ensure you erase the data on these devices before you recycle them.

Happy recycling!

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If you have questions or concerns about your particular situation, please e-mail me at tpsynder@xantrion.com.. I will use your input to direct future columns.
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