IT World Canada: Combine corporate responsibility and satisfying hard drive destruction with Electronic Recycling Association

If your office is looking to dispose of some old hard drives, you may want to consider the Electronics Recycling Association’s free service that sees an industrial grade hard drive shredder delivered to your office and then picked up when you’re done.

Never has corporate responsibility been so intrinsically satisfying as you watch the hard drive that failed you, likely costing many hours of work and a missed client deadline, get crushed by giant metal teeth and turn into a pile of metal refuse. All the while, you’ll feel good not only know that your data security remains intact (unlike the hard drive) and the electronics waste will be disposed of responsibly thanks to the Electronic Recycling Association (ERA).

The not for profit organization has made a mission of reducing e-waste and the adverse environmental impacts across Canada since 2004. It’s operated across Canada out of its depots in Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg,  collecting unwanted computers and other IT devices from companies and individuals that want to donate them for a good cause. Afer thoroughly wiping the hard drives of old data, the ERA finds a person in need of the computer to give the technology a new home. This past summer, the ERA helped Alberta residentsimpacted by wildfires through a dedicated donation drive.

On Nov. 7, the ERA announced it is opening a new depot in Toronto. While a grand opening is scheduled for Jan. 30, 2017, it says that services are available now. That means its services to refurbish old PCs are available, and so are its powerful hard drive shredders.

The advantage of having the machine brought to your office is 100 per cent certainty the data was destroyed without any risk of access by an outsider. But if you’d prefer, ERA will also just pcik up your hard drives and even arrange for live or recorded video of the hard drives being destroyed along with certificates and reports to document the process.

Canadian firms can contact the ERA to arrange to use a data shredder, or to donate old equipment today.