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Written by The McCarthy's Team on October 12, 2018

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13^th October marks the very first International E-Waste Day.

The day is all about education and encouraging the correct disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment across the world. The organisers of the day, the WEEE Forum (WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), has estimated that around a whopping 50 million tonnes of e-waste will be generated globally this year. That’s roughly made up of half personal devices, such as laptops, tablets, computers, smartphones and TVs, with the rest being bigger household appliances (for example, fridges and washing machines) and heating and cooling equipment.

That’s almost 7,000 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower, or 137 times the weight of the Empire State Building. That’s a lot of waste. But to make that figure

worse, the WEEE Forum estimates that only 20% of the world’s e-waste is recycled each year.

That means that a staggering 40 million tonnes of e-waste each and every year is either placed in landfill, burned or illegally traded, shipped off to developing countries. It’s hugely wasteful, a disaster in terms of the environment, and can cause serious health problems.

Even though in the EU we’re leading the way in terms of e-waste recycling, still only 35% of e-waste is reported as having been properly collected and recycled.

So, on the 13^th October, activities will be taking place across the world to raise awareness of the need to properly recycle electronic items.

Here at McCarthy’s an increasing part of what we do on the shredding side is dealing with electrical waste. While we can’t manage your old washing machine, what we are experts in is making sure your computers, devices, phones and hard drives are properly disposed of. It’s not just the recycling element which needs considering – there’s also all the data contained on that electronic equipment.

With the recent implementation of GDPR, it’s more important than ever before to make sure that any devices are properly wiped of information before they’re disposed of. Even if you think you’ve deleted everything, a clever fraudster might still be able to gain access to information from it – which might include anything from personal data on customers to your bank card details.

So, here at McCarthy’s, we take your old hard drives, computers, laptops, USBs, DVDs and CDs, make sure they’re completely wiped and then dispose of them securely in accordance with the WEEE Directive law. We’ll even provide you with a certificate of destruction, so you know it’s all been done properly. Peace of mind all round.

This E-Waste Day, why not consider what electronic waste you need to get rid of, and how you can do it properly? And if McCarthy’s can help, you know where we are…