Today, April 22, Earth Day is celebrated around the world to draw people’s attention to the importance of caring for the environment. 40 million tons of electronic waste is recycled annually in the world.
Technom on Earth Day told how to make computer recycling safer for the environment, because in today’s world electronic waste causes significant damage to the environment. “Every year, 40 million tons of e-waste is recycled worldwide, and in fact, about 800 laptops are thrown away every second. Only 12.5% of this waste is recycled, others are sent to landfills or incinerated. At the same time, toxic substances contained in computer components pollute our land, air, and water”, Technom press service said. Besides, according to the report, the danger lies not only in environmental pollution, but also in creating cybersecurity problems due to improper cleaning of device memory.
“Computers store a lot of personal data, from confidential documents to financial information. In case of non-compliance with the rules of complete deletion of data from the PC, the information can be recovered and used for malicious purposes, “cybersecurity experts explained.
So, according to IT specialists, first of all, you need to back up all data, log out of all accounts, and perform a factory reset to completely clean the hard drive. Then you can consider several options for disposing of the device.
Thus, according to the report, the simplest option is to exchange old equipment for new at a discount in certain retail chains. Besides, in some countries, device companies are legally required to help users safely dispose of their computers, so the next option is to contact the company where the device was purchased to find out if such a possibility exists.
Many charities accept electronic devices as donations, which reduces the risk of them ending up in landfills. And if none of the above options are suitable, you can take the computer to a company that processes various devices. “Any of these methods will help dispose of your computer properly, which in turn will reduce the amount of e-waste worldwide,” Technom specialists said.