What Are e-Waste and e-Data?

e-Waste is simply electronics that are obsolete, broken, or unwanted, and present an environmental hazard if not handled properly. Many components of electronic equipment are considered hazardous waste. It is a part of the growing waste stream in the disposal of consumer goods. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: "Electronic equipment contains metals and other materials that can be hazardous to human health and the environment if they are not properly managed." You can view a list of "recyclable" products that e-End^USA takes, HERE. This will give you an idea of the enormity of electronics that need to be recycled responsibly. According to the National Safety Council¹, "...more than 250 million personal computers [became] obsolete [in 2005]. Increasing technological change and decreasing chip costs are spurring the development of new products and driving the obsolescence rates of older electronics. This is evidenced by the average life span of PCs, which is falling from 4.5 years in 1992 to an estimated 2 years..." According to Giles Slade, author of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America: "Electronic waste represents 2 percent of America's trash in landfills, but it equals 70 percent of overall toxic waste."

Here are a few astonishing facts!

FACT 1: Did you know that as a corporate executive you can be fined or jailed for improper disposal of e-waste?

FACT 2: Data breaches in midsize organizations are just as common as the big corporations you read and hear about in the news (just look at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website).

FACT 3: The largest majority of the 91 million data records are harvested from stolen machines. How many are stored in your organization's warehouses, closets, loading docks, or storage facilities?

FACT 4: In 2005 Gartner Inc. estimated that by 2010, consumers and businesses will have tried to dispose of around 512 million PCs worldwide.

FACT 5: Electronic waste is the USA's fastest growing category of solid waste according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

FACT 6: Aberdeen Research found that removing as few as 3,000 PCs can save $1,000,000 per year in unnecessary storage and disposal.

FACT 7: Watchdog Business Software Alliance group warns "...if old [licensed] software falls into unlicensed hands, the company getting rid of the software and the recipient could face legal action that includes paying penalties of thousands of [dollars]."

FACT 8: Improper data cleansing from hard drives is rampant: Simson Garfinkel and Abhi Shelat of MIT surveyed 150 hard drives. All hard drives were "recycled" and purchased from open market sources (web, ebay, businesses). Forensic analysis showed between one-third and one-half of the hard drives had significant amounts of confidential data. Data that included a biotech project, credit card numbers, corporate memorandum, and information from a hospital.

FACT 9: The National Safety Council estimates that only 11-15% of the over 315 million obsolete computers will be recycled.

FACT 10: 70% of the heavy metals in U.S. garbage dumps are from electronics according to the EPA.

BONUS FACT: Over 150 million tons of electronic equipment was dumped in 2004. What does 150 million tons look like? What will it look like to our children and grandchildren if we don't do something about it?

 

Did you know that your hard drive carries a much more dangerous payload than the documents you shred? Look at e-End^USA's Documents In Danger to determine your potential liabilities.

 

You can read about the Federal regulatory requirements which are already in place for your industry, HERE.

 

 

¹The National Safety Council: "Electronic Product Recovery and Recycling Baseline Report: Recycling of Selected Electronic Products in the United States."