Go 'green' when you retire old equipment

A few months ago I wrote about options for getting rid of old computers piling up around your office. Since then I have learned about a high volume company that can take those computers off your hands in a safe (i.e., data compliant) and green (i.e., environmentally friendly) way. Even if you have hundreds or thousands of computers ready for disposal (i.e., recycling), this company can handle the load.

TechTurn, based in Austin, Texas, specializes in technology recovery, refurbishing and remarketing. TechTurn currently processes more than a million assets a year, and the business will be expanding further since receiving a $50 million investment. There’s clearly a need for services such as those offered by this company; between 60 and 70 million computers will be retired this year in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, the need for a reliable way to retire assets is far greater.

But that doesn’t mean the equipment is heading to a landfill. Far from it, actually. TechTurn president Jake Player says there is a vibrant market for refurbished equipment. Just because a PC is several years old and no longer “good enough” for corporate use doesn’t mean it has no life left at all. TechTurn ultimately finds another use for the older equipment, and that’s good for the environment.

TechTurn helps its corporate clients plan for end of life for computer assets. The company partners with Altiris to help customers track assets and inventory everything to know precisely what it is retiring. Next, TechTurn’s nationwide logistics organization picks up the equipment. Player says the company has “secure logistics” to eliminate discrepancies between what was shipped and what was received.

Protecting the customer’s data is a high priority (Compare Data Leak Protection products). TechTurn can provide onsite data encryption and/or data wiping before the computers leave a company’s premises, and it’s developing tools to do this remotely. Once the computers are brought to the TechTurn processing facility, technicians do a stringent wipe of the hard drive that is compliant with the Department of Defense’s highest level of data wiping. Then each drive is inspected forensically to ensure that no data is recoverable. If a drive is not reusable, TechTurn will smelt it to completely destroy it. Either way, the customer receives a certificate certifying that the data was wiped clean.