Businesses urged to dispose of IT equipment responsibly

21/01/2008

Businesses have been urged to make sure they know how to dispose of their unwanted computer equipment responsibly.

IT equipment recycling company Remploy e-cycle has revealed many businesses are not disposing of their equipment in compliance with the law.

The EU’s new Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, introduced to lower the environmental impact of electronic equipment by increasing re-use and recycling, means businesses now have a duty to dispose of end-of-life IT equipment responsibly.

However, research by Remploy e-cycle found that although over three quarters of businesses had recycled computers by selling or giving them away, many failed to consider the consequences in terms of the environment – or the security of their data.

Just 23% of those questioned had made their data irrecoverable, with 38% merely reformatting the drives and 22% simply overwriting them once.

Tony Stroud, Remploy e-cycle’s general manager, said that reformatting or overwriting data once or twice could still allow much of it to be recovered.

“It is admirable that some companies are making redundant equipment available for re-use, but in the overwhelming majority of cases, they are not rendering the data irrecoverable.

He added businesses should seek professional advice on deleting data, but added that they should be cautious about which company they use.

“Every business should seek assurance that their confidential data will be totally erased in the refurbishment process.

“They should also check that the company in question is a recognised IT refurbisher holding the Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher (MAR) status,” he added.