The manufacture and disposal of electronic devices, as well as the energy use in data centres, are all examples of how businesses significantly affect the environment. Adopting sustainable practises is essential to reducing e-waste, reducing the negative effects on the environment, and protecting the earth for future generations.
When it comes to disposing of their electronic equipment, businesses frequently ignore sustainability, harming the environment. As it prevents unnecessary physical destruction of electronic assets, data erasure is a crucial step in encouraging sustainability. Businesses can help create a greener future by using data erasure technique, which places sustainability first.
Electronic garbage (or “e-waste”) poses an increasing threat to the ecosystem and environment, having negative consequences on the quality of the air, water, and soil. E-waste poses serious health concerns to anyone working in e-waste processing and disposal facilities as well. While another World Environment Day approaches, this has been a topic that is frequently discussed on online forums all year long.
So let’s look at some hard facts using the following figures that illuminate the e-waste issue and aid in forming a clear understanding of its ramifications.
- E-waste production worldwide reached 53.6 million metric tonnes in 2019.
- If present consumption and recycling rates continue, the United Nations University (UNU) predicted that by 2030, e-waste might reach 74.7 million metric tonnes.
- Africa, the Americas, and Europe are the next four greatest producers of e-waste after Asia. One of the largest contributors is the United States, followed by China and India.
- Africa produces the most e-waste per person, which highlights the need for efficient trash management and recycling methods there.
Therefore, it is clear that e-waste today represents a significant burden for society, corporations, and politicians that is only getting worse with time.
The following measures can assist control (and possibly lessen) the e-waste problem as part of the overall e-waste management strategy:
1. Reduce the production of e-waste
By deciding to reuse their legacy devices, which are primarily IT equipment, instead of throwing them away as e-waste, people and organisations can minimise the amount of e-waste produced.
2. Improving the handling of e-waste
A more robust policy framework, especially in the developing world’s regions and nations, can encourage a more efficient handling of e-waste. Safe e-waste processing and disposal procedures, transboundary e-waste transportation, accountability along the chain of e-waste custody, trace back systems, and recording e-waste, among other things, are included in this.
Several situations that result in the development of e-waste at the consumption level include the following:
- Organisations give their outdated equipment to e-waste recyclers for shredding, degaussing, and disposal.
- Users can unintentionally dump or throw away their old laptops and smartphones with e-scrap vendors.
- Without a formal e-waste policy, organisations are free to get rid of outdated technology.
By establishing a process that could enable the devices to be reused, the number of instances of these e-waste creation scenarios can be decreased.
This process is made possible by data erasure software, which safely deletes storage media like hard drives, PCs, solid state drives, servers, and rack-mounted devices. The gadgets that have been wiped can still be utilised by way of trade, sale, donation, reallocation, etc. without necessarily being added to the stream of electronic waste formation.
When erasing storage media, data erasure software like BitRaser offers significant usefulness and ease with the guarantee that the media will be safe for reuse, exchange, donation, etc. without any chance of data leaking.
Here are a few main explanations for why BitRaser can aid in reducing the issue of careless e-waste generation:
- Hard discs, SSDs, servers, and rack-mounted devices are just a few of the storage devices that are erased by this software. Virtually the full range of common storage media is supported by BitRaser, together with its specialised variations for mobile and file erasure. In other words, it can prevent a greater variety and number of gadgets from becoming e-waste and so aid in their release onto the secondary market.
- BitRaser is certified data erasure software that offers audit trails and tamper-proof reports to assist companies in adhering to data protection laws like SOX, GLB, HIPAA, ISO27001, EU-GDPR, and PCI-DSS. It guarantees the primary owners that the erased media is ready for reuse, without any concerns of data leakage or misuse, by adhering to international data erasure standards. Therefore, outdated technology can be redistributed, resold, or used in other secondary transactions as opposed to being disposed of as e-waste.
Conclusion
E-waste management is a crucial necessity that the world is currently confronting; failure or improper treatment of e-waste has serious ramifications. A dangerous situation is being created by the astonishing rate at which e-waste is being produced, the absence of a secure disposal policy framework, and users’ disregard for their individual obligations.
Adoption of approved data erasure software allays concerns regarding breach of remaining data from abandoned devices and permits reuse of devices, which reduces the development of e-waste. It’s time to recognize your shared responsibility for managing the electronics we use and our e-waste footprint and to take action in that regard. A key move in this direction could be the adoption of data erasing tools. It’s up to you!
