Are you planning an office renovation? Perhaps you are the business owner, or maybe you make key decisions for your organization in your role as a manager or supervisor. You probably know the items that you will dispose of. If the renovation involves more than equipment upgrades, you may be concerned about disposing of building materials and obsolete office machines. These tasks could get assigned to third party businesses, but if you have a small to medium-sized business, you could save revenue by disposing of items that are not building materials. Exercise caution when disposing of items to ensure that you do so in an ethical manner. The following points will help you identify business-related items that you should not discard in regular dumpster rentals.
Hard Drives
Some companies extract and store hard drives from damaged or obsolete office machines. Perhaps your organization has hard drives that contain information the company has deemed as unnecessary to continue to store. This may happen when updated technology gets integrated into business environments and allows companies to consolidate stored information. The old hard drives may not be needed, but proper disposal is important because they may still contain sensitive information. Savvy hackers may find ways to restore information deleted from hard drives.
Documents
Depending on your industry, you may have a legal obligation to dispose of documents in a manner that does not put clients and customers at risk. Sensitive information such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, health insurance policy numbers, state ID numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and sensitive health information could prove damaging if discovered by the wrong individuals. Individuals affected by this type of breach could seek financial compensation.
Office Equipment
Ideally, you should try to donate computers, empty ink cartridges, keyboards, printers, optical mice, monitors, laptops, and other equipment. You need to ensure that the company you select for recycling has the correct protocol in place to protect your business. You may want to consider recycling these items with a company that takes the equipment apart and resells it piece by piece. Some of these companies salvage and rebuild equipment to service individuals who may not be able to afford new ones. Ensure that data safety is paramount.
A dumpster rental service is a good resource to use to ensure that you properly dispose of waste. They can advise you regarding any items that you may not know how to dispose of. Some companies may have special disposal options for waste that is not considered traditional waste. If not, they probably know of local waste providers who can assist with recycling machine parts or disposing of sensitive materials.