E-waste recycling is a method of creating something new from disposing of electronic equipment like a hard disk drive. Data destruction, on the other hand, is the process of destroying sensitive information in your HDD. A common mistake is when a disk drive malfunctions, all the files in it will become unreadable, as well. But what happens is the files stay in the platters. This can cause significant risk to an individual or an organization if the disk that has not undergone data destruction falls into the wrong hands.
Most data destruction can be performed when the HDD is in excellent condition, when it is broken disk destruction processes are carried out which although a destructive process, is an environmentally hazardous practice.
Recycling Hard Drives Recycling hard drives is the most economical and safe alternative in getting rid of those confidential data. Moreover, you not only help protect the environment but also save money from having to rely on HDD destruction machines and services.
There are two ways you can recycle hard disk drives
- Re-purpose
There are a lot of things you can do with your dead hard drives. You can:
Salvage some parts
Hard disk has an extremely strong magnet that you can use for almost anything you think is useful like using it as an organizer for your tools in the garage or a place to put your knives.
The platters have some fun uses too. You can use the platters off and the hard disk drive and use it to make an analog clock that can be an excellent gift, especially for your computer nerd friends.
Create new products out of old drives
Play with LED and Hard Disk
Create your own persistence-of-vision hard drive clock which creates an illusion of a clock. The LED-powered clock works as the light gets manipulated by the spinning disk. With perfect timing and probably a bit of programming, you can amaze your friends with this one-of-a-kind LED clock.
Other things you can play with LED and projects include turning it into an oscilloscope, or a light show that activates whenever you play some music, or a multi-colored LED light show.
- Send it to a recycling center.
There are recycling centers, which accept old hard disk drives for recycling. In some recycling centers, you can send your hard disk to recycle for free, some require you to pay a small fee, and some recycling centers even buy your hard disk for a small amount of the fee. You can send it to recycling centers yourself or send it through the mail.
Benefits of Recycling a Hard Drive
Your hard drive is your primary device in storing data. The disk inside the hard drive is called the platter and as long as these platters are not destroyed, anybody can gather files from your disk regardless if it is broken or not.
Remnant data in the platters are not just your saved music, school projects, or embarrassing pictures, but also sensitive information like your name, address, social security number, credit card information, and other things you thought are gone in your hard disk permanently, but the truth is, it stays inside the disk until the whole disk is overwritten unconditionally.
Anything can happen when your sensitive information gets stolen like when your identity is used to act as you then rob all the money you have without you noticing it. Loss can be from losing at least $4,000 or 3 months’ worth of working full-time to losing all your money in the bank when you don’t take action against it.
Recycling or re-purposing your hard disk is a way to get rid of these remnant data in a more economical but more useful method compared to other kinds of data destruction like when you destroy your hard disk to eliminate remnant data.
A hard disk, when thrown is a kind of e-waste that can emit toxic fumes and harmful chemicals, which can damage the land, air, and water.
Another advantage is that you do not need to buy a hard disk destruction machine or send your disks to hard disk destruction services. Therefore, you can save up to $4,000 just to destroy hard disk drives.
Conclusion
You do not need to spend a dime to destroy sensitive information on your hard disk. Nor you don’t need to apply brute force to destroy it. By recycling hard disks, you not only protect your data but also be a hero to the environment, as well. And through being creative, you can even earn a dollar or two from what was once considered a risk to your personal or company finances.