E-Waste Disposal & Recycling

The disposal of "end of life' computers, monitors, servers and key boards is becoming a growing concern. The problems are driven by technology that is producing faster, smaller and cheaper microchips. The life expectancy of computers, in 1996 was four to five years, and now that life expectancy has dropped to a life span of only two years.

The 435 million computers predicted to become obsolete between 1977 and 2005 contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead. Cathode Ray tubes or CRT's, are the glass picture tubes in computer monitors, televisions and other video display devices, that contain high levels of lead in order to protect us from radiation dangers. Monitor glass contains about 20% lead by weight-about 4 to 8 pounds per unit.

Electronic waste (E-Waste) already constitutes from 2% to 5% of the US municipal solid waste stream and is growing rapidly. According to the the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 1997 more than 3.2 million tons of E-Waste ended up in landfills and it is estimated that number will grow fourfold in the next few years.

Recycling of computer materials and its components represent the safest and most cost-effective strategy for addressing the problems posed by inoperative or out dated computers.

Recycling computer material and its components and removing and/or reducing and treating the hazardous components, conserves resources, reduces environmental and public health threats and protects worker safety while substantially reducing the high cost of permanently storing and disposing of hazardous wastes.

ANOTHER REASON TO RECYCLE
An even more worrisome concern is the data that is still left on the hard drives! Merely deleting files will not clear the hard drives. Sometimes, the previous owners of the computers has taken the trouble to delete important files but did not realize that a PC's delete function doesn't really remove the data but conceals it from the computer's operating system. It's easy to recover such deleted files.

Although "reformatting" the hard drive appears to wipe out all the data on the disk, the information is still there and can be read using common recovery tools. Many companies have had their data security compromised by improperly disposing of an old PC.

Progressive Environmental Services insures to our customers that not only are all of the components recycled for beneficial reuse but they also guarantee to totally destroy the existing hard drives contained within to insure absolute security. 

Progressive Environmental Services issues a written guarantee as to the recycling of the components. And in addition they comply with ISO 14000 standards as to the the environmental treatment of the hard drives. Progressive Environmental Services is ISO vertically integrated.

Once again, environmental responsibility far exceeds environmental liability. Why make yourself vulnerable while trying to do the right thing?  Use Progressive Environmental Services for all of the recycling of your E-Wastes.