Some cities require special handling of e-waste, including Boston and most of its suburbs where it’s illegal to just throw it out in the trash. In the City of Boston, you can be fined $100 for placing electronics, such as computers and TVs, at the curb for disposal. The city offers hazardous waste drop off days 4 times a year, check the schedule here.  Check with your city of town to see what days they offer a similar service. 

Unfortunately there is still about 9.4 million tons of electronics thrown out annually in the United States, with only about a quarter of these recycled.  

Whether your city regulates e-waste recycling or not, there are several reasons you or your organization should recycle your technology:

1) protect sensitive data; 2) get fair market value for used technology; and 3) protect and preserve natural resources.

Sensitive data, whether on a laptop, server or smartphone, needs to be completely erased before you resell or recycle your technology. Professionals can destroy your data and give you a Certificate of Data Destruction for added assurance.  The company we partner with takes this one step further in that they also assemble used, but still viable equipment and donate those items to charitable organizations!

With mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets it’s important to understand that resetting their devices to factory settings does not guarantee that the information has been completely erased from the device. It is essential to have someone knowledgeable and trusted manage the data erasing process. At Tech Help Boston, we partner with a Waltham based company that provides sustainable technology management solutions, including recycling hardware and data destruction. 

• You can find the closest e-waste recycling center by zip code (anywhere in the U.S.) using an interactive map developed by DirecTVDeals.com. There are also several free e-recycling services listed below.
• Staples Recycling will securely recycle your unwanted technology at no cost— any brand, any condition, even if you purchased it somewhere else. 

Having a plan for recycling your technology that includes properly disposing of electronics is not only better for the environment, but it can also mitigate the risk of having sensitive data fall into the wrong hands. The key is to plan ahead and budget according to hardware replacement cycles.