Disposing of Unwanted E-Equipment
In all likelihood, your firm cannot dispose of its outdated electronic equipment in the same manner it used to. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Computer disposal requirements are different for households and businesses. For example, under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), computers disposed of by a household are excluded from the definition of a hazardous waste, while computers disposed of by a business may be regulated as a hazardous waste. There are four categories of waste generators recognized by EPA.
In general, all households are exempt from federal EPA rules regarding computer disposal (although state regulations often include households). Organizations disposing of less than 220 lbs of hazardous waste in a month are classified as conditionally exempt small quantity generators (CESQG). Organizations dumping between 220 lbs and 2,200 lbs are classified as small quantity generators (SQG). The fourth and final classification consists of organizations disposing of more than 2,200 lbs, which are classified as large quantity generators (LQG).
The most dangerous hazard consists of computer monitors. Computer monitors are different from most computer equipment because of the concentration of lead: 27% of the weight of a CRT monitor is due to its lead content. Disposal in landfills contaminates water supplies.
How Many Monitors Can You Dispose of Before RCRA Rules Apply?
CESQG organizations are exempt from most of the RCRA disposal standards. If a company disposes of more than seven to eight monitors in a given month, it may exceed the threshold and be classified as an SQG. In that case, the organization will be required to follow many of the hazardous waste standards set forth in the RCRA.
LQG organizations face the most restrictions and costs. As an example of the documentation requirement set forth by the EPA, in 2000 AT&T agreed to pay a penalty of $195,000 for not properly responding to an agency request for information about its computer-disposal practices.
RCRA rules regarding computer disposal are restricted to landfilling. Disposal usually does not include recycling, donations, or trade-ins. However, some computers that are donated or sold to scrap dealers and recyclers may end up being improperly disposed. To minimize potential liability, businesses must use due diligence to ensure that their computers are disposed of properly.
To ensure that they do not find themselves in violation of RCRA, law firms should develop a plan for the proper disposal of equipment, including computers, monitors, fax machines, printers, telephone systems, cell phones, copiers, and any other E-waste. Law firms tend to save outdated or replaced equipment far too long. There are many reasons law firms repeatedly do this including:
1) a belief that there will be some residual value to the equipment, which can be actualized on a “rainy day”
2) a belief that the older the equipment gets the more value it will have as other firms still using the equipment struggle to find replacement units
3) a belief that the value of the equipment as a “replacement” or “spare” part justifies its storage
4) a belief that it is easier and cheaper to store the equipment than properly sanitize it and arrange for its disposal
Most of the time, these reasons prove flawed.
Your law firm should do an inventory of its old E-equipment. Any used equipment that can be sold or given away should be sold or given away immediately. Donating computers to charitable organizations and schools provides a firm with tax benefits that may exceed the expected realizable value from selling the computers via a secondary market. It can also provide the firm with a valuable public relations opportunity. Auction sites like E-Bay can provide an avenue for sales of used equipment.
Any equipment not working, or equipment with little or no value, should be sent to a reputable recycler. I recently came across a company—Computer Recycler of Eastern PA— which services Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware with E-Recycling. They don’t provide much information on their web site, but I found a little more on their parent company site.
When planning to upgrade to new computer equipment, take advantage of manufacturer trade-in programs, which can reduce the combined cost of acquiring new equipment and responsibly disposing of old equipment. Most major computer manufacturers (e.g., Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq) have trade-in programs. They were created when various states threatened to mandate recycling for computers sold in their states.
Don’t Commit Malpractice Through Generosity or Responsible Environmental Recycling Practices!
Regardless of whether you decide to donate, recycle, trade in, or dispose of your outdated E-equipment, you must be sure that you are not inadvertantly revealing confidential client information. Simply erasing information from hard drives, or even following that with a reformatting of the hard drive, is not sufficient to protect the sensitive data from retrieval. It’s like removing the label from a file folder without destroying the contents. Some forensic experts claim the only way to properly protect sensitive client data is to remove the hard drive and smash it to smitherines.
Current standards for satisfying your requirement of exercising “reasonable care” to protect client data, however, is to erase it, and overwrite the hard drive a minimum of seven times. That protects it to what is called Department of Defense (DOD) standards. There are a number of reputable software packages to accomplish this, including Sanitizer, DataEraser, BCWipe, and others.
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General Management, Technology | admin | 
November 21, 2005 2:44 am
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