Environmental Awareness and ESG Goals with an ITAD Provider

Environmental awareness is growing, with many businesses and corporations implementing eco-friendly policies and strategies to promote sustainability. Environmental standards have increased over the last few years, and now, more than ever, the business world is striving to reduce its carbon footprint. Hazardous waste management is among the most important actions taken to reduce pollution, and companies can help protect the environment while also achieving ESG environmental goals by partnering with an ITAD provider. 

Electronics are used daily, whether at home, in the office, or at school, and e-waste has become a significant issue in the last decade due to irresponsible IT asset disposition. Millions of consumers across the globe use several electronic devices every day and need to learn how to dispose of them properly. As a result, pollution and battery fires are rapidly increasing. 

Many believe landfills are the best choice, but e-waste differs from regular waste. Electronics are made with precious metals such as gold, silver, mercury, lead, platinum, and aluminum that leak toxic chemicals, which soak into the soil and pollute the groundwater. This can affect the surrounding water supply and cause severe illness in animals and people living in nearby areas. 

Another popular method is incineration, which many turn to to avoid potential environmental pollution, but incineration also causes pollution. Rather than soaking into the groundwater, the chemicals pollute the air when electronics are burned and can also cause health issues for those living nearby. In 2019, a study was conducted on illegal e-waste burning, which determined that the e-waste burning had significantly contributed to the high levels of air pollution at the three monitored sites. These findings were associated with cardiovascular morbidity amongst the residents of the third site, indicating that the health issue may have been the result of long-term exposure to air pollution from illegal incineration. 

Often, IT assets pile up in storage closets or any available space and become an afterthought, but this could be just as dangerous and potentially lead to a battery fire. Lithium-ion batteries can be found in most electronics used daily and are known to cause chemical fires when damaged. Many warehouse fires occur due to thermal runaways, and the longer any devices containing LIBs are left in warehouses or even landfills, the higher the risk of potential damage resulting in a fire. 

Few businesses have disposition plans for retired IT assets, which can lead to poor e-waste management. Electronics recycling is the safest, most environmentally friendly manner of disposal for these hazardous materials, and ITAD facilities like HOBI offer more than just recycling. 

HOBI specifically offers value-added IT asset disposition services, including data destruction and security, customizable reverse logistics solutions, mobility managed services, and data center decommissioning. As an R2v3, RIOS, and ISO 14001 certified IT asset management and disposition provider, HOBI prioritizes environmental safety in every step of the disposition process and works to reduce the pollution and contamination produced by e-waste via electronics recycling. 

For more information about our ITAD services, call 817-814-2620 or contact HOBI at sales@hobi.com.