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E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, driven by the rapid advancement and increasing ubiquity of electronic products. For Singapore, one of the world’s finance and transportation hubs, the high consumption of electronic devices by the affluent population leads to a large and growing amount of e-waste. Given the accelerating pace at which electronic equipment is being discarded, e-waste has become one of the largest and fastest growing waste streams in the world. In 2019, the generated e-waste amounted to 53.6 million metric tons or 7.3 kg for every person on the planet. Less than one quarter of it is being recycled properly through formal e-waste recycling processes. About 80% of the e-waste was transported to developing countries, where such operations are conducted informally or illegally.
In those countries, the harvesting of valuable commodities from the discarded electronic devices is performed laboriously by hand by a considerable portion of the 18,300,000 people, many of whom are women and children, who rely on the e-waste recycling stream for a modest, but steady, source of income. This activity is conducted in unsafe work environment, which leads to severe health and environmental issues on a local scale. Entrusting your e-waste to companies with professional & safe HDD disposal procedures ensures that data is securely wiped or destroyed using industry-standard methods, safeguarding your privacy and sensitive information.
Understanding E-Waste Management
Any professional asset disposal company should be well prepared for storage and/or disposal services. Their e-waste management plans and developing responsibilities in IT departments raise the concerns about the potential economic, environmental and security risks related to unmanaged or mishandled IT assets at enterprise sustainability level.
The primary goal of e-waste management companies is to ensure the responsible and environmentally friendly disposal, recycling, and management of electronic waste, commonly known as e-waste. These specialized organizations play a crucial role in reducing the negative environmental impact of electronic waste by recovering valuable materials for reuse, securely handling sensitive data stored on electronic devices, and preventing e-waste from ending up in landfills or causing harm to the environment. By offering services such as e-waste collection, recycling, data destruction, and secure disposal, e-waste management companies contribute to sustainable electronic waste management practices, promoting environmental responsibility, legal compliance, data security, resource recovery, convenience, and reduced health risks associated with improper e-waste handling
To manage electronic waste (e-waste) effectively, it is crucial for enterprises to engage a professional asset disposal company. While proper disposal is one aspect of responsible e-waste management, it is important to have a comprehensive e-waste management system – i.e., one that encompasses proper disposal, IT audit, green data center solutions, rental services, and secure and certified data destruction services.
The Importance of Professional HDD Disposal
A HDD that is not properly cleaned before being abandoned still stores data that can be restored using software like PC Inspector File Recovery, Recuva, FreeUndelete or others. Occasionally being thrown away, such drives represent serious risk for commercial secrets, private data, personal identities, house addresses, phone lists, contact cloud addresses, political or court documents, tax bills, and many other similar data of commercial, private or secret character. Before abandoning a HDD, one must certainly shred the magnetic platter to small pieces to reduce the chance of data recovery. It is almost impossible to disassemble an HDD to do an easy and complete disconnection of the platters from the body case, and after that, easy and complete shredding of the platter more than once by mistake with the aim to clean the data. Shredders need to be transported to landfill, which means a waste of time and money. So, the best practice is disintegration and shredding of the HDD by professional specialized firms who are certified as recycling one, when a company decides to destroy the data and abandon its IT equipment.
We do data management incorrectly and forget about such necessary measure as timely disposal of the hard disk drive (HDD). A discarded HDD containing unencrypted data can cause a leak of commercial secrets, loss of private information, etc. Leakage of commercial secrets can cause harm to a company’s reputation or harm relations with partners and shareholders. One of the aspects of potential risks by improper disposal of HDDs and subsequent information leaks is discussed in and in it is stated that all types of data storage media (hard disk drives, solid state drives, magnetic tapes, CDs, DVDs, floppy disks, and USB removable media) are found in illegal landfills, unsold and unserved. Professional & safe HDD disposal services guarantee the secure handling and destruction of sensitive data to prevent any risk of data breaches or identity theft.
E-Waste Management Practices in Singapore
The NEA plan with the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle – helps to ensure that educational approaches and greater consumer choices are emplaced for responsible end-of-life disposal of e-waste. Furthermore, an ecosystem approach and resource recovery technologies for e-waste are also available through the international industry and trade agreements coming from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Harmonization Plan and the United Nations Basel Convention. Singapore is set to be actively involved in such international dialogues, which highlights the accessibility to the knowledgeable government representatives in Singapore’s NEA, thereby providing guidance from the National Environment Agency. For household items such as electronic waste, metal, and bulky waste, there is a centralized removal system from home to waste collection points. The collection is free, but not for large bulky waste of more than 2m3. The unit charge varies based on the volume of the item, with the maximum charge given to the disposal of sanitary ware. For e-waste, large items such as TV, air conditioner, boiler, washing machine, refrigerator, and furniture are subjected to manual collection, with the rest of the waste products categorized based on the collection and disposal criteria as set by public waste companies, making both household waste and e-waste removed from homes by engaging companies under the Public Waste Collector licensing scheme.
In Singapore, consumers are encouraged to practice responsible and accountable waste management through legislative efforts and consumer awareness programs. Recently, the National Solid Waste Management Strategy has been put into place to highlight enforced responsibilities on the proper disposal of electronic waste (e-waste). Singapore accumulated approximately 60,000 tons of e-waste in the year 2015 and in terms of the actual amount of e-waste per person, several reports have shown a significant relationship between disposable income per capita and the amount of e-waste collected when comparing studies done on different continents. Recent news reports in Singapore provide insights that the city has achieved a recycling rate of 19% for e-waste, an achievement that allows Singapore Electronics Industry (SEI) to step up efforts closer to the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) target in achieving a 30% rate by 2021. Choosing a professional & safe HDD disposal provider offers peace of mind, knowing that your hard drives are handled with care and disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.
Practicing ITAD can give benefits such as remarketing, greater financial return, item-specific recycling, lower IoT failure risk, proper environmentally friendly disposal, and better public relations with corporate governance in mind. Many businesses operate with more than one perspective and goal to fulfill. Using professional standard secure waste disposal can help in reducing certain technology risks. Secure standard legal disposal services can give any business angle the edge they need to capitalize and disengage from the technology risk factor at the same time.
Businesses in Singapore can ensure that e-waste disposal, recycling, and ITAD services are properly and securely performed by engaging trusted e-waste companies. ITAD services are useful value-added services that should not be overlooked by businesses. Hence, business professionals in Singapore need to be critical when choosing a service provider. Always make sure that the e-waste company you engage practices compliant and endorsed standards, as the bare minimum to safely dispose of e-waste. Be it for sensitive data destruction or simply keeping a secure professional disposal standard. Always ask for certification of destruction or provide engagers with these certifications as a general official practice. Professional & safe HDD disposal practices adhere to strict regulatory guidelines, minimizing environmental impact and ensuring compliance with data protection laws.