The Guide to Commercial Recycling for Electronics in NY
Streamline Your Commercial Recycling for Unwanted Electronics
For New York businesses, following commercial recycling guidelines for electronics is essential. Disposing of your unwanted e-waste through proper channels can ensure that sensitive information remains protected and help avoid any potentially costly legal liabilities.
Today, we are going to cover everything you need to know about commercial electronics recycling in New York State. First, let’s begin with why you should not throw e-waste in the trash.
Electronics Recycling
New York State has banned businesses from disposing of electronics in the trash or through curbside pickups since 2015. Instead, unwanted electronics should be sent to an authorized e-waste recycling service, brought to a proper collection site, or mailed through a recycling program.
As businesses scale their operations, updating electronics often follows alongside. Devices can quickly become obsolete as business performance requirements increase. Some typical types of e-waste that accumulate can include:
- Desktop and laptop computers
- Computer monitors and TV Screens
- Tablets and smartphones
- Business landline phones
- Printers, scanners, and copiers
- Servers and connecting cables
There are multiple reasons to support smart e-waste recycling. For example, many valuable computer components and materials can be recovered and repurposed for newer models, such as copper, gold, and semiconductors. This reduces the number of new resources needed and the amount of additional waste produced during the manufacturing process.
Secondly, e-waste may also contain materials that are toxic to the environment. Groundwater, soil, air, and other aspects of the local ecosystem can become compromised as a result of burning old electronics or allowing their components to absorb into the ground.
Data Destruction
Similar to e-waste, old data storage devices like hard drives may still contain retrievable sensitive information. If a person acquires an old hard drive that once belonged to your business, they could potentially access information that was once thought erased.
Destroying files in-house can require a large amount of time, resources, and trial and error to complete properly. To ensure that your business’s information is properly wiped from old storage devices, it is important to request data destruction services from a professional. At ProTek, we provide complete data destruction for businesses – just make an appointment with us and put all of your unwanted hard drives or computers in a single place!
After picking up your computers, we will then professionally shred the hard drives at our facility to ensure complete obliteration and prevent future access to sensitive files. After this, we send a certificate of destruction to guarantee that the hard drive no longer exists.
What to Look for in a Commercial Electronics Recycling Service
On-Site Bulk Pickup
Look for a service that can pick up your e-waste on-site. Rather than taking time away from your core operations, look for a team of professionals that come to you and pick up your unwanted electronics in bulk.
State Authorization
A high-quality electronics recycling company should be certified by New York State to provide services. Select a recycling facility that is designated as a NYS Registered Electronic Waste Recycling Facility. For data destruction, look for a Licensed NYS Document Destruction Contractor. These authorizations ensure that the recycling company has met objective requirements by state authorities to reliably dispose of your unwanted electronics and data.
Guaranteed Data Destruction
When you send your electronics to a data destruction specialist, can you guarantee that these devices have been sufficiently disposed of?
Find a data destruction service that provides a guarantee of completed service. This could either be through a certificate or by hiring a contractor that offers on-site services where you can directly observe your storage devices being obliterated.
Zero Landfill Policy
As mentioned above, e-waste poses multiple ecological threats to local environments. When disposed of in a landfill, this can contribute to major groundwater, soil, and air contamination. A recycling service that adopts a zero landfill policy will dispose of and recycle unwanted electronics without ever visiting a garbage dump.
In-House Recycling
Some e-waste recycling services will ship their collected materials overseas for further processing. This not only drives up service rates, but it also results in more energy and emissions due to having to fly or ship the electronics to a faraway destination.
As the name suggests, an in-house company will handle all recycling operations in their own facility. This allows for a more timely disposal without using unnecessary resources to accomplish.
HIPAA Compliance
For medical businesses and organizations, data destruction grows considerably more complex when HIPAA regulations are involved. The improper disposal of devices containing sensitive personal health information can create severe legal liabilities. Patient data should be destroyed professionally to protect against medical identity theft from unwanted parties.
Get Commercial Recycling in New York State Today
ProTek Technology Recycling is NAID AAA Certified, a NYS Electronic Waste Recycling Facility, and a Licensed NYS Document Destruction Contractor serving New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Providing bulk, commercial recycling and both on-site and off-site data destruction services, we help businesses ensure that their unwanted electronics are properly and safely disposed of. To learn more, contact our Manhattan office today.