Thanks to Karen Shan for her recent article in the Poughkeepsie Journal reminding the community of the importance of safely disposing of electronic waste. HV Shred is all about secure and safe disposal of confidential paperwork and oftentimes we get requests regarding what to do with electronic waste.
In addition to paper shredding, we also securely destroy hard drives. When it comes to key boards, monitors, printers, phones and other fast becoming obsolete electrical equipment, it is critical to keep in mind safe disposal.
Our colleagues at Royal Carting are a particularly good resource for this type of material. In the article, Attorney James P. Constantino, partner at Teahan & Constantino in Millbrook, who is general counsel for Royal Carting Service in Hopewell Junction explained that tech gear contains serious contaminants, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, manganese, arsenic, beryllium, barium and chromium metals, plus other toxic chemicals/compounds, such as phosphorus.
Constantino explained the importance of managing this waste stream/commodity and keeping it out of landfills and out of our ground water as critical for the health and safety of all of our citizens—particularly young children whose growth and development could be negatively impacted.
Among the products recycled by Royal Carting are: televisions, monitors, personal computers and associated equipment, printers, scanners, VCR/DVR/DVD players, portable digital music players, electronic or video game consoles, cellphones and more.
Locally, Royal Carting accepts, separates and stores e-waste at its Hopewell Junction and Wingdale transfer stations, with the goods subsequently transported to Regional Computer Recycling & Recovery for recycling and recovery processing. As well, the company files annual reports with the DEC to account for e-waste disposal.
Our Judith Papo was quoted in the article as well, noting: “Number one is reduce,” said Papo. “On the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle,’ priority one is reduce.”
For more information on proper e-recycling as well as secure document destruction, please visit www.hvshred.com