The COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to move employees off-premise, leading to an explosion in the number of edge devices and network connections. Amid the remote work boom, demand for PCs and new form factors (e.g., tablets, notebooks) swelled with sales growing 18.2% in the fourth quarter of 2020.[1] With daily work lives being whisked online, peripherals such as headsets, wireless microphones, speakers and even noise-cancelling solutions have become a must in decentralized work environments, and new devices have replaced old, out-of-date, less secure devices to enable the now-distributed workforce. As organizations continue on their digital transformation journey, they are generating more and more data. The playing field for networked devices is expanding. More routers, firewalls, network, and storage appliances are deployed in edge ‘outposts’ and branch offices to meet distributed workforces’ needs.
So it comes as no surprise that the electronic waste (e-waste) challenge – which was already a pressing concern for IT and business leaders – has grown in size and complexity since 2020.
An oft-cited Global E-waste Monitor report which shows that a whopping 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) was generated globally in 2019, underscores the growing problem of toxic e-waste, which gets dumped in landfills.
Organizations need to respond to this environmental problem proactively, and it starts with building a sustainable IT asset disposal program when IT hardware reaches end-of-life (EOL).[2]
The reality is that the enterprise device ecosystem is only set to grow. Over the next two years, there will be 29.3 billion networked devices, a Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) report predicts.[3] Traditionally, IT budgeting dollars for the retirement of obsolete, end-of-life hardware have been scarce. IT decision-makers (ITDMs) spare little thought about how hardware purchased today should be managed at the time of disposal or whether the organization complies with e-waste regulations.
So, how can organizations stem the growing tide of e-waste, dubbed as one of the most toxic waste streams produced in the industrialized world? The answer is to design and build technology components and assemblies that can be easily reused, re-purposed, or recycled. This closed-loop recycling can address the asset disposal problem and lead to a greener, more sustainable environment.
E-Waste: What It Is and How We Got Here
Most e-waste falls into two categories — equipment and materials.
Equipment: This includes devices that are reaching end-of-life, coming off-lease or excess capacity due to organization downsizing, and also any migration from on-premise processing to cloud services. There are several categories of equipment. Some of these are employee personal computers and attached devices such as keyboards, disk drives, SSD memory in computers and servers, shared peripherals such as printers, network devices, and cables of all kinds.
Materials: Some technology can be separated into basic components such as metal, glass and plastic, which may then be recycled or sold in a commodities market. Some of these materials are potentially valuable, such as gold, silver and platinum used in magnets. This is an important target area for recycling and reuse since metals like gold are expensive to mine from ore, and such mining produces toxic wastes.
Initial attempts to deal with e-waste centered around disposal. However, this led to both environmental and social impact, as awareness of the need for sustainability increased. It also led to generic recycling of some materials, safer disposal of potentially toxic materials, and additional mitigations such as reuse, resale and donation.
The next phase of e-waste management included building more recyclable materials into the product design itself. In addition, there were attempts to reuse some materials in newer products. Organizations then began to design products so that more components could be reused.
The future will see more products designed for sustainability. This trend is known as closed-loop recyclingOpens a new window . The intent is to design with recycling in mind and protect the environment.
Why Responsible IT Asset Disposal Should Be an Essential Business Practice
While companies continue to invest in next-gen IT assets and hardware refresh, they need to lay down the groundwork for secure, environmentally friendly IT asset disposal solutions either at the time of purchase or during hardware upgrades. Here’s why — there is clear business value connected with responsible IT asset disposal and recycling of end-of-life products. Often, organizations lack dedicated resources to understand whether they comply with various environmental regulations. Secondly, holding onto obsolete IT equipment leads to bloated costs, resulting in piles of outdated hardware. Most importantly, a lack of safe IT asset disposition can create data security risks.
In short, safe IT asset disposition translates into environmental sustainability and significant cost savings. Partnering with a dedicated IT solution provider for responsible disposing of decommissioned IT assets can help companies realize sustainability goals, up level corporate stewardship, and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) by eliminating the maintenance of outdated hardware.
Helping organizations achieve these ambitious goals is Dell Technologies. To shrink the e-waste footprint and reuse recycled materials in product development, Dell has embedded sustainability processes in multiple parts of its technology portfolio. As part of their sustainable devicesOpens a new window program, the tech behemoth champions sustainability in product component design and packaging and other supply chain processes.
Some of their sustainability successes include:
- Using several million pounds of recycled plastics per year on more than 125 different product models.
- Pioneering a closed-loop processOpens a new window for recycling gold from e-waste back into new motherboards.
- Manufacturing devices featuring up to 65% post-consumer recycled material.
Meet Sustainability Goals Using Dell’s Recycling Services
Dell provides a free service to assist enterprises with their electronic recycling needs, including verifying specific categories of items such as computers, monitors and peripherals, and providing instructions on preparing and delivering the materials. Besides, the technology provider has several programs to assist customers with sustainability and reducing e-waste.
For instance, the Erase E-WasteOpens a new window program drives real change across institutions and industries with initiatives such as:
- Providing a digital sustainability kit to schools, colleges and universities, helping them to get started on erasing e-waste.
- Running a sweepstakesOpens a new window where contestants submit videos or photos of their recycling drives or e-waste activities.
- Explaining how to safely conduct an e-waste recyclingOpens a new window drive to collect and recycle used consumer electronics.
- Product takeback for businesses and consumers across 75+ countries wherein the company wipes sensitive data and disposes of electronic waste responsibly.
Using Refurbished Products to Reduce the Impact of E-waste
Another solution to the growing e-waste stream is leveraging refurbished devices made from recycled or renewable materials to reduce carbon footprint, root out supply chain inefficiencies, and lower environmental impact. New investment in refurbished hardware can help organizations rethink device management and build back better after the pandemic. Working in partnership with sustainably-minded organizations and investing in refurbished hardware is vital to achieving sustainability targets.
Dell has found a radical way to turn these ideas into reality. At the heart of the company’s sustainability program is its closed-loop plastics supply chain, wherein millions of pounds of closed-loop plastics are recycled to make new parts for new computers and monitors each year. As their sustainabilityOpens a new window page notes, “Our learnings from creating a closed-loop plastics supply chain have enabled us to experiment with other closed-loop opportunities. For example, we worked with hard drive manufacturer Seagate and recycling program partner Teleplan on a pilot project to feed recovered rare-earth magnets back into thousands of new hard drives.â€
Bottom Line
The way forward is clear. To make real, measurable progress, organizations need to rethink how decommissioned IT assets are treated and make responsible IT asset disposal an essential business practice. Now more than ever, organizations need to embed sustainability across hardware procurement and product development and pivot from contributing e-waste to regenerative approaches where materials can be repurposed for reuse. As sustainability becomes mission-critical in the face of a raging global pandemic, leveraging Dell’s recycling initiative can help companies improve environmental standing and minimize the impact of e-waste.
Sources:
1 The Surge in PC Shipments Is Not Over with Solid Growth Expected During the Holiday Quarter and into 2021Opens a new window , IDC
2 Global E-waste Surging: Up 21 percent in 5 YearsOpens a new window , United Nations Institute for Training & Research
3 Cisco Annual Internet ReportOpens a new window (2018–2023)