Safe Disposal of Old Electronics
Launch library · evergreen read
Old electronics should never simply go into general household rubbish, partly due to genuine environmental concerns and partly because many devices contain batteries that pose a real fire risk if crushed or damaged during ordinary waste collection and later processing at a local recycling facility.
Wiping all personal data from any device before disposal, including phones, computers and tablets, protects against that information being accessed later by someone else, even from a device that genuinely appears to have already been fully reset beforehand by its previous, genuinely careful and conscientious owner.
Many electronics retailers and local councils offer dedicated recycling programs specifically for old devices and batteries, providing a considerably safer and more environmentally responsible disposal option than standard kerbside collection would ever offer for this particular category of everyday household electronic waste collected each year.
Removing batteries from devices wherever this is genuinely possible before recycling them, and taping over the exposed terminals of individual batteries beforehand, reduces the risk of a short circuit and potential fire occurring during transport and later industrial processing carried out at a larger scale.