The Art of Responsible E-Waste Recycling: Expert Advice

Expert tips on building a responsible e-waste program -- from internal policies to vendor selection -- that protects your company and the environment.

Responsible e-waste recycling is part process, part culture. The companies that do it best have embedded disposal thinking into their IT lifecycle management -- from procurement to decommission.

At procurement, specify asset tags and document equipment in your CMDB from day one. Track the assigned user and data classification for every device. This inventory work, done at the beginning, eliminates scrambling at decommission time.

Establish a decommission SLA: no device should sit in a decommission queue for more than 90 days. Devices sitting in storage rooms are security risks -- they can be lost, stolen, or informally disposed of by well-meaning employees who don't understand the data risk.

Build data destruction into your IT offboarding procedure. When an employee leaves, their device should go directly to the IT queue for wipe/destruction before reassignment or disposal. Many data breaches originate from devices that were 'going to be wiped eventually.'

Finally, close the loop with documentation. Your legal and compliance teams need records. Every MicroAnt pickup produces a certificate of recycling, and data destruction certificates with serial numbers are available on request. Store these records for the duration required by your applicable compliance framework -- typically 6-7 years for HIPAA-covered entities.