In this Q&A, Enrico Airaga, CTO at Desco Electronic Recyclers, offers insights into best practices for e-waste management, which is vital for reducing the environmental impact of electronics.
Q: What are the key environmental regulations and compliance requirements for CIOs?
A: The Basel Convention regulates the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, ensuring proper handling and disposal. One of the challenges is that the receiving party must prove they will recycle the e-waste and not dump it.
The waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive is another key regulation, focusing on the collection, treatment, and recycling of e-waste in Europe.
In South Africa, CIOs must comply with the National Environmental Management Waste Act (NEMWA), which governs the disposal and recycling of e-waste, including hazardous materials like lead, mercury, and cadmium. It’s also essential to stay informed about regional regulations to ensure full compliance.
Key compliance areas include proper collection, treatment, recycling and reporting of e-waste, with a strong focus on minimising harmful environmental impacts.
Q: What are the best practices for securely wiping or decommissioning used PCs?
A: To mitigate data security risks, CIOs should use certified data wiping software, such as KillDisk or Blancco, which overwrites hard drives multiple times to ensure no recoverable data remains. If data wiping is insufficient, physical destruction of hard drives, using shredders or degaussers, ensures the data is irretrievable.
CIOs should also follow stringent decommissioning protocols, including asset tracking, authentication, and obtaining certificates of destruction from certified vendors. It’s important to remove all asset tags, labels, and identification marks from PCs before disposal.
Q: How can CIOs implement sustainable e-waste management strategies?
A: Whenever possible, repair or refurbish old equipment for internal use or donate it to educational institutions or NGOs. CIOs should also consider shifting to leasing models, which allow for hardware upgrades and returns, minimising waste.
Component harvesting, which involves extracting useful parts from obsolete devices for reuse in other systems, is another option. Adopting a circular economy mindset by purchasing from vendors offering take-back programmes or designing products with recyclability in mind is also beneficial.
Q: What criteria should CIOs use to evaluate and partner with certified e-waste recyclers?
A: CIOs should partner with recyclers that hold certifications such as ISO, which ensure adherence to environmental and data security standards. Recyclers should provide transparent reporting and full traceability of waste streams to ensure responsible processing of e-waste.
The recycler’s environmental impact is also critical. Evaluate their handling of hazardous materials and energy-efficient recycling methods. For international operations, ensure recyclers can manage cross-border movements of waste in compliance with international laws like the Basel Convention.
Q: How can CIOs align e-waste management practices with broader corporate sustainability goals?
A: Incorporating circular economy principles is key. CIOs should aim to increase the percentage of IT assets that are refurbished, repurposed, or recycled. E-waste management should also be part of sustainability audits for suppliers and partners. Employee training is equally important and educating employees on sustainable IT practices can enhance overall corporate sustainability efforts.
Q: What are your top tips for leveraging emerging technologies for lifecycle management?
A: AI can play a pivotal role in lifecycle management, particularly through automated sorting of e-waste components, which can significantly enhance recycling efficiency.
