The electronics recycled in this bin go to our recycling partner the Electronic Recycling Association (ERA). The ERA is committed to reusing donated technology as much as possible before a product reaches is true end of life. They take what has been given, repair it, and then distribute it to under privileged communities. This initiative reduces overall e-waste and provides a much needed social service.

This brings up the obvious concern of data privacy and security. The ERA performs a comprehensive software data wipe before making an attempt to repair, improve, or redistribute all electronics. They partner with a company called Blancco, and use their latest stack to provide a cutting edge soft-wipe. This address security concerns for computers, as well as mobile computing devices.

If you still have concerns about your privacy and would still like to use the service, you can do one of the following. If your computer has a removable hard drive, remove the hard drive and send [email protected] an email. AMS sustainability will be organizing a hard drive shredding event in the future. If your device does not have the ability to remove a hard drive, you can use any number of freely available software to wipe your device yourself. The thing to look for is an option to write to zeros, or do something like a full wipe. Lastly, if neither of these techniques is sufficient for your needs, we recommend you take your electronics to Return-it (https://www.return-it.ca/). They are run by Encorp, an end of life recycler that abides by EPRA (http://epra.ca/) .

Still have questions? Email us with “Electronic Recycling” in the subject line: [email protected]