Most small businesses are used to recycling information that comes into the office in paper form, but what about electronic media like CDs, DVDs, USB Flash drives? Or that pile of Floppy Disks in your drawer that you no longer have the drive to read?
Well, the temptation may be to simply toss them in the trash – or shred them with your office shredder if they have data on them you’d rather others don’t have access to – but in both instances, you’re either putting potentially harmful chemicals in the local ground water by way of the landfill, or you’re co-mingling your shredded discs with paper that’s now no longer recyclable due to the garbage mixed in with it!
So what can you do?
Well, working USB “Thumb” drives are probably the easiest to deal with: simply reformat them to remove the sales info and start using them for your own data instead. Personally, I can never have enough flash drives! And if the drive is no longer usable, you should recycle it with your other electronics.
But CDs and DVDs are not re-writable, and who uses Floppies any longer? In those cases, you’ll need to find a place to recycle them instead.
Similar to ink and toner cartridges, many big box stores have drop off boxes for things like discs, but do be sure to phone ahead first to make sure your local store handles them.
An if they don’t, or you have more discs than they can handle (I once worked with a company that had over 300 lbs of old CDs and DVDs to recycle!!), then you’ll want to contact a local recycler instead. And a good one to reach out to in McHenry Country is Computer Recycling Center in Crystal Lake. They’ll take all your optical discs and get them disposed of properly for you.
An alternative if you have items CRC won’t handle is an online company called Green Disk (among many others). Green Disk will take optical discs, floppies, old video tapes, and more.
Finally, if you’re local and need help hauling your old discs or other electronic equipment away, give us a call and we’ll come out and, for a small trip charge, do the hauling for you.