These days, it’s one heck of a struggle to keep pace with technological progress when you’re in business. Sometimes you feel as though you’re rattling around on a giant hamster wheel as you struggle and strive to stay up to date with computer hardware and software developments, as well as the telecoms gadgets your people need to keep in touch with their colleagues and with your customers.
You invest accordingly in the very latest stuff. And then, just when you think you’re ahead of the game, another gizmo comes along and you’re left lagging behind again. The company purse-strings are loosened and you splash out on yet more technology. It’s a never-ending story…
Every time you do this, of course, you’re confronted with an office or factory floor festooned with outdated equipment that needs to be disposed of legally, safely and ethically. These days, every decent-minded business has its eye on sustainability and the environment in its businesses practices, for the greater good of our planet. Yes, you want rid of those obsolete PCs, phones, photocopiers, even light fittings but you don’t want to see valuable commodities going needlessly to waste.
So, what’s to be done? The good news is that the Norwich area has a vibrant recycling services sector. It seeks to save businesses money by taking away their old equipment – pretty much anything with a plug attached or battery inside fits the bill – and then sorting it, reusing it or recycling the components. In many cases collection and disposal is offered free of charge.
I’ve become involved with recycling in the past two or three years, largely through my 35-year background in electronics, avionics, computers and microprocessor services in the city, and I’ve been impressed by what can be achieved to help businesses maintain their green credentials.
To my mind, repair is the ultimate form of recycling – someone somewhere might be searching for the very machine that you’ve deemed surplus to requirements – but even if that’s not the case a substantial array of the component parts can be put to good use again.
Take a PC, for instance: this can be dismantled and sorted into metals, plastics and circuit boards. By the time the recyclable parts have been identified, hardly anything – normally less than one per cent, in fact – should be left for landfill. That’s good news for the environment, don’t you think?
Reputable businesses in this sector will be licensed by the Environment Agency and registered under The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011. They will equip you with all the correct legal paperwork and protect your businesses precious privacy and security, too, ensuring safe data destruction; again, this service may be provided free.
Problem solved.
Pete Lloyd
forage4it.co.uk, IT disposal & destruction services provider
www.forage4it.co.uk – [email protected]
t: 01603 290069 m: 07810 105908
