Recycling Your Computers ... and phones ...
and
by Greg Welsh
You’ve
been good about buying new computers for your business, and
your employees are satisfied, well-trained, and highly productive.
But in that back storage room sit the remains of old computers
that you thought you would pass along to your kids, or to
some charitable group, or, well, someone. Keeping them company
are old monitors, too small to effectively display the large
amounts of data needed on-screen to work effectively, too
large to keep on precious desktop or counter space. Then there
are the keyboards, mice, and other input devices that have
broken or been replaced by more ergonomic models to help your
employees feel good and avoid repetitive stress injuries.
In drawers
at work and home lie old cell phones, cameras, personal digital
assistants, all manner of things digital – and an informal
poll of your staff would reveal that they, too, have been
hoarding devices long past their prime. We share a collective
nostalgia for those items, along with other relics of our
past, childhood, and if you’re a parent, our children’s
early years.
Hewlett-Packard
and Office Depot have joined forces to help you with clearing
out the clutter. They won’t take the old barbeque, or
the broken handheld vacuum. But they will collect and recycle
a broad range of information technology and digital entertainment
products from any manufacturer, including desktops, notebooks,
keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, handhelds, digital cameras,
fax machines, desktop copiers, flat panel displays, monitors,
TVs (27" or smaller), TV/VCR combos and cell phones.
Nothing to buy, and no need to package items in boxes suitable
for shipment. Just take them to your local Office Depot store,
drop them off, and walk out. Of course, if you want to cruise
the store looking for some new gadget, the folks at Office
Depot won’t mind… and after all, you’re
already there, so why not? You’ll also find Hewlett-Packard’s
web site at the end of this article so you can read the press
release for recycling program details, and check out their
latest products.
The program is the lowest-cost legal outlet you’ll find
for getting rid of all the precious metals and environmentally
toxic materials in these devices. Local community recycling
programs, such as the one conducted once yearly in Arlington,
Virginia increasingly turn technology recycling over to a
contractor, who will take only certain items and for a fee
(usually nominal). You risk getting a citation from local
authorities for dumping your old digital stuff in the trash,
not to mention how such irresponsible behavior stains one’s
conscience. Which is why we all have collected so much stuff
through the years, and why the HP-Office Depot program is
not only good policy, it’s good business.
Don’t
forget to scrub the hard drive of any computers you recycle;
the last thing you need is confidential or proprietary information
leaking into public when you’re trying to do a good
deed. The most reliable way to prevent unauthorized access
to data on an obsolete hard drive is to smash it with a hammer
(feels good, too!), but if you’d like to minimize the
hassle of removing the drive from its case, use a software
utility program such as LSoft Technologies’ KillDisk.
KillDisk reformats the hard drive in such a way that data
is not recoverable with ordinary file recovery utilities.
It’s available in a free version from the KillDisk web
site, or, it you want the added security of using standards
certified by the U.S. Department of Defense and the powerful
Guterman algorithm, LSoft will take USD $29.95 and download
the program to you in just a few minutes. No matter which
solution you choose, use one – don’t just send
your old computers off to the recycling bin with customer
and personal information on their hard drives.
All
products collected from Office Depot stores will be recycled
at HP's U.S. recycling facilities in Roseville, Calif. and
near Nashville, Tenn. This is community service at its best;
take advantage of it between now and the program deadline
of September 6.
HP’s
press release: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2004/040713a.html
Hewlett-Packard’s home page: http://www.hp.com
Office Depot’s home page: http://www.officedepot.com
You find Kill Disk’s home page at: http://www.killdisk.com
I welcome
the opportunity to help you build your business through your
interest in the Small Business Advisor. You may contact me
via email.
