Partner with the wrong ITAD and e-waste provider, and your business faces lawsuits and damage to your reputation. It’s beneficial to be very selective about who handles your e-waste.
Why Compliance Documentation Matters in Electronic Recycling
Article from | ERI
Electronic waste (e-waste for short) is a growing problem for businesses and individuals. In the 2024 “Global E-Waste Monitor,” it’s reported that 62 billion kilograms (around 136.687 billion pounds) of e-waste are generated around the world. It’s a lot.
More concerning is that only about 22% of that e-waste is collected and recycled correctly. The rest of it pollutes our water, soil, and air. To ensure that e-waste is recycled correctly, following federal and state laws and regulations, it’s essential to choose an ITAD company that provides e-waste compliance documentation.
Partner with the wrong ITAD and e-waste provider, and your business faces lawsuits and damage to your reputation. It’s beneficial to be very selective about who handles your e-waste.
Meet Legal and Regulatory Requirements
E-waste regulations are one of two areas you need to carefully consider. In addition to state and federal laws regulating how you dispose of e-waste that the EPA considers hazardous waste, there are privacy laws and regulations to consider.
Consider the cost of improper e-waste disposal. Can you afford fines or court settlements like these three companies faced?
- 2015 – Comcast agreed to a $25.95 million settlement for unlawful e-waste disposal. In addition to disposing of e-waste, not all items had customer data wiped before their disposal.
- 2022 – Morgan Stanley hired a company for a decommissioning project, but that company never destroyed data, and Morgan Stanley never reported it after they discovered the issue. Personal information remained on the hard drives that were sold to a third party. Fines topped $35 million.
- 2024 – Walmart was ordered to pay $7.5 million for improper disposal of customer records, batteries, chemicals, and medical waste.
As you decommission a data center, close a business, or upgrade to new equipment, start by looking into:
- Extended Producer Responsibility Laws – Many states have embraced this law that makes a requirement for manufacturers to track and report end-of-life management.
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act – A U.S. law that regulates the disposal of hazardous and solid waste.
You’ll also find state laws that apply to electronic waste. For example, in Vermont, it’s illegal to throw away any battery, even alkaline. They must all be collected and brought or shipped to a recycling facility. The same is true of any electronic or electric device, including game controllers and small appliances.
Check your state laws to see how to dispose of any electronic item. If your state doesn’t have specific laws, you still must abide by federal laws regarding hazardous waste. It’s also just better for the environment and your company’s reputation to make sure you recycle all electronic items, including batteries.
Protect Clients, Customers, and Employees’ Data and Privacy
If you run a hospital or medical office, patient privacy laws such as HIPAA make it clear that you must keep patient information from the wrong hands. A bank or federal agency must protect a customer’s bank accounts, SSNs, and contact information. Failure to do so leads to fines, lawsuits, and damage to your company or organization’s reputation.
Consider data privacy and the personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive personally identifiable information (SPII) that’s stored on your devices. This is information that allows someone to figure out your identity, such as your SSN, date of birth, driver’s license number, etc. SPII can be dangerous in the wrong hands, as someone could take sensitive information like your SSN and apply for credit using your credentials.
If your company stores PII or SPII, you must follow the laws for your industry. Banks must follow the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Many companies, especially those with European customers, are bound by GDPR compliance. CPRA and DORA are others. Know what you’re required to abide by when recycling anything electronic.
When you recycle electronics, you need proof of destruction to prove you complied with regulations. Certificates of destruction protect you from class action lawsuits and government or regulatory body fines and penalties.
Help the Environment and Prove Chain of Custody
Proper e-waste recycling helps the environment. You keep lead, mercury, and many other heavy metals and chemicals out of landfills. While landfills are lined and test leachate and emissions, no one knows where things will be 50 years from now. Today’s liners are relatively new and don’t have centuries or even decades of research to prove their longevity.
If these heavy metals and chemicals end up in the groundwater or air, they impact health. Plants growing in contaminated soil become a problem. So do public water sources like ponds, rivers, or lakes. It’s important to protect what happens. It’s why many states require proof that you recycled responsibly.
The other thing to consider is that proof of the chain of custody is also important. When you hire a company to take your electronic devices, what happens now? Do you have proof that they remained with that company the entire time? When you recycle with a responsible e-waste provider, you have proof of chain of custody.
Protect Your Business
When you have certification that you destroyed data and recycled properly, you protect your business. You avoid lawsuits and fines, but you also get to add Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) to your list of accomplishments. That looks good to your stakeholders, your clients, and the public.
You also have a tool to rely on for assessing your consumption of electronics. If you have one department going through laptops every other year, while another hasn’t needed new laptops in five years, you can adjust your spending and redirect electronics of excellent condition to other departments to ensure they have updated equipment, too.
Key Documents to Have as Proof of Responsible IT Asset Disposition
That’s why it’s important to have proof of ITAD and e-waste recycling. You want to make sure any partnership provides you with these documents.
- Asset lists of each device you recycled and their serial numbers.
- Bills of lading that show when the items were picked up, who transported them, and when they arrived at the electronics recycling facility.
- Audit reports that show the item’s value, if it had any, and whether it was suitable for refurbishing or dismantling for parts.
- Certificates of Destruction demonstrate that your electronics were destroyed and cannot be used ever again. They’ve often gone through a shredder that cuts them into small pieces.
- Certificates of Recycling that show proof that the electronics were recycled by an ITAD provider in an environmentally responsible way. The ITAD provider’s certifications, like e-Stewards or R2, should be included.
Look no further than ERI for your responsible ITAD and e-waste recycling needs. We hold e-Stewards, NAID AAA, R2v3, and several other certifications that focus on environmentally-friendly e-waste recycling and legally-compliant data destruction services.
While our standard data destruction option might be enough for your needs, we match our services to ensure your devices are recycled properly. If 800-88 Rev1 isn’t enough, we’re also happy to offer NSA/CSS Policy Statement 9-12 or demilitarization services for top secret assets.
Give us a call to discuss your ITAD needs and learn more about the steps we take and documents we provide after destroying data and recycling your unwanted electronics.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag
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