FAQs on Electronic Waste Recycling

What happens when I give PAR my computers and other electronics?

Your computers and electronics are deconstructed. It first is sorted for value purposes, then it goes through a process to destroy all data on hard drives and then it’s deconstructed. 

What does it mean to “deconstruct” electronics that people don’t use anymore? 

It means that we take all the components out individually the they are sorted and then put into their specific spaces for everything every screw is taking out every piece has completely taken back to its original form. So for a PC, we would take the hard drive, case, motherboard, internal cards all separately – allowing us to recycle individual parts. Deconstructing impacts recycling in that we lose valuable recyclable material if we do not segregate the parts of the computers you provide. Separating the electronic metals allows the valuable materials to be extracted and earn PAR additional revenue.

What electronics aren’t worth recycling?

Large appliances, things like dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, large refrigerators.Those don’t work for us.

What is it about trying to recycle appliances that makes them not worth it vs computers?

There is a nominal value in recycling the large appliances like washers and dryers. Due to their size, we don’t have the space to hold the materials. Additionally the components, wire, switches, etc are rarely valuable enough to have our team spend time doing so.

Do I need to wipe the data off my computers / tablets / laptops before I give it to you?

Everybody should delete data off their items before turning over any of their devices to our team, that includes cell phones, hard drives, tablets, laptops, etc. 

Here are resources that show you how to wipe a hard drive on a MAC and PC, an iPhone, and Android phone. This should have you covered. 

How do we handle the data sanitization for hard drives & SSDs? 

Every data containing material (like PC’s, laptops, etc) goes through electronic magnets called a degausser and it goes through that process which renders all the information on the disk drive, hard drive or SSD useless. We take it a couple steps further by dismantling the hard drive and drilling a hole through the center. That’s the NSA standard.