By now we have hopefully made it obvious that CompuCycle is an R2 Certified, EPA Accredited, responsible electronic recycling company and were the first to achieve this certification in Houston, Texas. Today I’d like to give you some insight information about the CompuCycle process and what really happens to your electronics after they are dropped off at our warehouse!
At CompuCycle we follow the R2 Practices Hierarchy of “Reuse, Recover, Dispose” so our first job once we have received the product is to determine if the materials are working while simultaneously assigning each product a Lot # so everything can be accounted for.
- As we begin to sort through the products, we sort the working from the non-working. All of the products that are working and in good condition (between 2-3 years old and taken care of) start the refurbishing process which means they will be cleaned, data cleared, and resold. This is the top of the recycling hierarchy “reuse”.
- Once the products arrive at their correct location, we remove all identifiable client tags off of the materials (company stickers or barcodes). This is when the data destruction begins. We have 2 methods of data destruction:
- Shredding- removing hard drives from the computers and physically destroying them.
- Data erasure- using Department of Defense Software to perform a 3-pass swipe of any data or confidential information stored on the hard drive. We test the hard drives to ensure there is not data left on them however if any fail inspection they will be shredded.
- Once all information has been cleared we then place a CompuCycle barcode on the product and it is listed in our inventory and eventually sold.
- If the electronics are older and non-working they are taken to our recycling area of the warehouse to be de-manufactured.
- These hard-drives are shredded and the rest of the parts are sorted into like categories which include; plastics, coppers, scrap metals, and then of course the focus materials which consist of mercury found in LED monitors and battery components.
- After being sorted, the products then are taken to R2 approved downstream vendors such as plastic recycling companies, metal refining companies and copper smelters.
And THAT is how it’s done. If you have any additional questions about our process or want to recycle old electronics do not hesitate to contact us at any of the following venues:
Email: info@compucycle.net
Phone: 713-869-6700
Website: http://www.CompuCycle.net
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