The problem is, if you don't take the time to properly dispose of your drives, you could end up with a data breach on your hands — or worse, contributing to the world's pollution problem. This guide gives you all the information you need for disposing of hard drives in an environmentally-friendly and secure way.
How to dispose of hard drives in an environmentally-friendly manner
My goal here is to provide as much information as possible about how to safely and reasonably dispose of your old hard drives to minimize the chance that they could become your next print dust or a dangerous bioterrorism vector. Before you listen to the rest of the article, here are some additional items to keep in mind. There are some specific rules you’ll need to follow in order to ensure your hard drives reach their destinations in a safe condition. We’ll take care of the rest once you’re done reading this.
What are the dangers of not disposing of hard drives properly?
When you throw away a hard drive containing sensitive information, it can be a matter of life and death. It’s a relatively easy thing to do, especially if the data is encrypted, but a lot of people still don’t do it. Here’s what can happen if hard drives containing sensitive information aren’t disposed of properly.Old drives are just another kind of waste. If you allow recycling plants to try to get your old hard drives, they could end up polluting local landfills. Yahoo! reports, ** Many sites reward users for their recycling. By sending information regarding your recycling, you can both encourage recycling and reduce the amount of wastes generated globally. Many corporations also plan to create “smart cities” in order to reduce their carbon emissions, but it is consumers’ responsibility to set an environment that supports eco-friendly recycling. Usage of "secure" storage media Do-it-yourself methods can inadvertently end up polluting your hard drive’s environment. Hopefully, disposing of an old hard drive in a non-secure way will prevent you from hurting the planet, but if not, here’s what you can do: • Deleting the contents of a hard drive is fairly simple. All you have to do is delete the operating system and delete the first letter. Take the computer with the drive, unplug it and then remove the hard drive.
