How to Safely Dispose of Old Technologies by John Sharpe

If you're like many IT professionals, disposing of old technologies is probably not top of mind for you. Maybe there are a hundred other things on your plate you deem more important, or perhaps you've been stashing all of those old IT assets out of sight and out of mind for some time now. You're not alone; GBI Research expects global e-waste recovery to be a $21 billion industry by 2020. Luckily, there's a way to safely and responsibly dispose of your old IT assets: Iron Mountain Secure e-Waste and IT Asset Disposition.

The Iron Mountain Secure e-Waste and IT Asset Disposition program has been getting some press lately-and for good reason. We recently partnered with CloudBlue to ensure customers' equipment is collected by vetted Iron Mountain employees, fully tracked through our chain of custody and delivered to CloudBlue for processing.

As part of this program, Iron Mountain allows you to receive compensation for several types of electronics, as well as recycle assets in an eco-friendly manner. Iron Mountain is an e-Stewards Enterprise, adhering to the strictest green recycling requirements. The program is also socially responsible in that it forbids practices such as the use of sweatshops, child and prison labor anywhere in the supply chain. It's also transparent, in that we can demonstrate the downstream disposition of all hazardous waste throughout the supply chain.

Of course, disposing of your assets can lead to more than feeling great about being green and earning some extra cash. The process can also make it easier for you to transition to new technologies that can help improve your ROI and create more efficient processes across your business. Most importantly, though, you're keeping your company's and employees' information safe.

Though it can be tempting to simply run a factory reset on your devices and be done with it, this won't stop a devious data-recovery expert with sophisticated tools from recovering your information. If you're really concerned about your legacy data, rely on a trusted vendor to destroy and recycle your information carefully and effectively. Data breaches average $1.57 million per breach, according to the 2015 Ponemon Institute's Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis, and not carefully disposing of your data can put your company at risk.

To learn more about how to securely destroy and recycle your old technologies, download the free e-Waste and asset disposition guide, or contact Iron Mountain today.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2015/service-lines/data-backup-and-recov...
	See more stories from ironmountain

Most recent headlines