It’s November, which means the countdown to Christmas has officially begun in the UK. For the more organised people, it means sorting out Christmas presents before the December rush. Maybe even in the Black Friday sales. And one of the most popular gifts this year is new technology. But there is one thing that all of these shiny new devices, and that’s what you do with the old ones? This year, make sure you know how to recycle your old devices, without putting your data at risk.
Use The Retailer
This is perhaps one of the simplest methods to use. Due to increasing pressure for corporate responsibility, many technology retailers will offer recycling programmes in house. One of the biggest retailers to have this in place is Apple. Since 2014, they have been running a scheme called Renew and Recycle, where you can bring in (or send in) any old Apple products you have (no matter how old they are), and Apple will either recycle them or refurbish and resell them. If they fall into that last category, you will be given an Apple gift card in return for your items. Many of the bigger tech retailers will offer similar schemes, so all you need to do is ask, and it’s as simple as 1 2 3.
Wipe It And Sell It
One of the most popular options (maybe because the first one isn’t that well known), particularly for phones and tablets, is to sell them on. This can either be privately, online using platforms like eBay or even to re-sellers like Mazuma Mobile. The thing you need to remember in this one is to wipe all of the data from your devices before you sell them on. For mobiles and tablets, this is as simple as just going into the settings and hitting ‘factory reset’. For things like laptops and computers, this will not only mean formatting the hard drives, but removing and shredding them as well.
WEEE Schemes
Your third option is probably best for your older or broken equipment. You know, the kinds that’s been sat in the back of the cupboard for quite a while, just taking up space. The old, chunky TV’s, the broken desktop computer and the ancient tablet. For these, there is the WEEE scheme. WEEE stands for the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive. This is the EU directive that instructs people and business owners to recycle and reuse their old, waste IT through dedicated centres. Every local authority will have a WEEE centre or scheme in place, so it’s simply a case of finding your local centre and taking your equipment to them. There are also businesses like Veolia, who handle the process for you. You will want to ensure that you have wiped any data from your devices or remove your hard drives before you do. There is no reward for you in taking this route, but it is a way of removing that equipment form your home or business without risking your data.
At Hungry Shredder, we help businesses and individuals dispose of their old, unused hard drives in the most secure way possible. So instead of ending up with a drawer full of old hard drives, you can ensure your data is safe and your drawers are free. By shredding your hard drives, you are ensuring that any residual data on them (because there is always residual data) is well and truly destroyed. For more information about our hard drive shredding services, just get in touch with our experts today.
