With Prime Days, Old Tech Can Become a Problem

With Amazon’s annual Prime Day having come and gone, we can’t help but wonder how many of you bought consumer electronics while they were on sale through the web retailer. If you did, that’s amazing, and we’re glad you got what you’re looking for. However, we do want to strongly urge you to consider disposing of your old electronics in an environmentally conscious way.

Why is E-Waste Bad?

Consider how quickly we go through consumer electronics. How often do you replace your smartphone? If most adult humans in the world have a smartphone that they replace every couple of years, e-waste can accumulate remarkably fast. That’s without mentioning the countless laptops, desktop PCs, appliances, and so on that go bad or are replaced by newer, better, more modern technology that makes your life easier.

Even though there is markedly less spending on new electronics, and the supply chain has been significantly disrupted due to the ongoing pandemic, people are still going to buy new technology, leading them to discard their old. The problem is that these devices don’t get properly recycled; instead, they get shipped to landfills in third-world countries where they collect into massive mounds of electronic waste.

These devices are not cheap to produce, and they contain several valuable metals within their components, like gold, silver, copper, iron, and platinum, along with harmful chemicals that are horrible for the environment and the people who inhabit it, like mercury, lead, and cadmium.

Don’t Forget to Wipe, Either

It’s not just the e-waste that becomes a problem for businesses and users, either; it’s the data stored on these devices. Oftentimes, people will forget that these devices house immense amounts of data that could be valuable to others for the right price. You never know who could be rummaging through landfills trying to find working devices that they can then crack and sell to interested parties. To prevent this from happening, you must wipe all data from your devices before recycling them. In many cases, this means physically destroying the hard drive so it is unrecoverable entirely.

We Are Happy to Help!

If you are unsure of how to properly dispose of your old electronics, Washington Works can help point you in the right direction. We can help you wipe your company’s old devices so that they no longer contain sensitive user data on them, as well as locate a place that can and will recycle your devices so that they don’t wind up in an overcrowded landfill halfway across the world.

To learn more about how you can do your part for a safer, healthier, and cleaner environment, reach out to us at 301-571-5040.