Approximately 70% of toxic waste in non-hazardous landfills is from electronic waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With today’s rapid technological advancements, businesses are discarding electronics faster than ever. And less than 13% of electronic waste is recycled, The World Counts reports.
Amidst those staggering numbers, Gaines Garrett, CEO at Secure Shredding and Recycling in Baton Rouge, says no matter the size of your organization, it is still critical for local businesses to protect their data and confidential information by destroying and recycling discarded electronics and documents.
“You don’t have to have millions of customers to have a data breach,” Garrett says. “You need to have a program in place that protects both your electronics and your paper, because paper is still a very viable source for data theft.”
Secure Shredding and Recycling recycles about 1.2 million to 1.5 million pounds of paper per month from businesses in the southeast region. E-waste recycling is the company’s fastest growing sector, averaging roughly 120,000 to 150,000 pounds of recycled electronics per month.
Garrett recommends business owners and leaders establish a records retention and data destruction policy to prevent data breaches. He advises local businesses to partner with a National Association of Information Destruction certified provider to properly destroy documents and electronics. Physical destruction, he says, is the only way to ensure proper disposal of confidential data and information.
“People hold onto things longer than they need to, which comes at a significant cost to the business,” Garrett says. “You’re paying to store it and if anything happens and you were to go through a legal process of discovery, that just adds more expenses to provide all of that. If you have a legal and stated data privacy and records retention policy, you can point to that policy and say we have everything leading up to this point and after that, we destroy it. That’s really important for businesses to have in place.”
