WEEE disposal relates to the directive that has been around since 2007 and you might also be familiar with it from the regulations that govern the disposal of old refrigerators, freezers and air conditioning equipment. WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and it is required by law that your business adhere to its guidelines.
What does WEEE disposal apply to?
- As it’s name states, the WEEE disposal regulations apply to the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
- This includes IT equipment, some office machinery and electrical household appliances such as fridges and freezers.
- These types of equipment might leak hazardous gases and poisons into the landfills possibly reaching the water tables by leaching through the ground.
WEEE disposal and IT equipment
WEEE disposal applies to IT equipment, such as your old computers, because they can contain all kinds of poisonous and toxic chemicals. In fact, it is estimated that a personal computer can contain more than 100 poisons including Lead, Cadmium and Arsenic, just to name a few.
For this reason, there are recycling initiatives that can take your old computers and other IT equipment and recycle them safely. However, there are many companies that are concerned with the theft of their computer data and they should be!
WEEE disposal and confidential data
In order to ensure you comply with WEEE regulations, you are best off employing a specialist waste disposal company. When choosing a company to deal with your WEEE disposal it is important to check that they are registered with the Environment Agency as a Licensed Waste Carrier and have a licence number.
RecyclingYourIT.co.uk are experts in IT equipment recycling and also know how to deal with secure data wiping and shredding of your hard drive to protect confidential information, such as contracts, credit card numbers and personal identities. Managing the end-of-the-life of your IT equipment should include compliance with WEEE disposal, for the sake of the environment, but your business and personal information needs to be protected, too.
We are specialists in breaking down your computers and IT equipment for safe WEEE disposal or recycling and providing documentation to verify secure data wiping. While most WEEE disposal companies are quite adept at recycling your computer components in this way, there are some parts of your computer, such as the hard drive that might be too important to trust to just anybody. For this reason, you will need verifiable documents of data wiping and tracing the path of your computer and IT equipment is possible through asset tracking.
While there are some hard disks that might need to be shredded, there is high demand for the recycling of hard drives that are 80 GB or more. It is at the customer’s discretion as to whether to go through data wiping instead of destruction, but be sure you receive a certificate of destruction for your records, insurance records and the best protection of your data.
A WEEE disposal company will offer services that allow for the re-use of IT equipment and computers, whenever possible, because the ultimate goal is to cut down on hazardous waste in our landfills. When you consider how many computers and IT components there are in the world today, safe IT disposal is an important concern in the UK and the entire world. Your data can be safely destroyed and your old computer can have a new life in many cases, but either way, WEEE disposal by a properly licensed waste carrier is a must.
Find out more about WEEE disposal.