FAQs

Q. Are there laws that require my company to keep sensitive data secure?

A. YES. Statutes like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act may require you to provide reasonable security for sensitive information. To find out more, visit www.ftc.gov/privacy.

Q. What are the environmental benefits of recycling e-waste?

A. Electronic products are made from valuable resources including: precious metals, plastics, and glass. All of these materials require energy to mine and manufacture. Recycling these materials conserves natural resources and avoids air and water pollution along with the greenhouse gas emissions that are produced when new products are manufactured.

Q. What are the hazardous substances found in electronics?

A. Lead, mercury, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants are among the substances of concern in electronics. These substances are included in the products for important performance characteristics, but can pollute and contaminate the environment if the products are not properly managed at end of life.

Q. Does Ecovery export electronic waste to under-developed countries?

A. No. Ecovery recycles all material in our RIOS Certified state of the art processing facility located in Loxley, AL.

Q. What certifications does Ecovery have?

A. Ecovery is one of a small number of recycling facilities in the US to be Recycling Industry Operating Standards (RIOS) Certified. RIOS is a management system specifically for the Recycling Industry based on ISO 14001, ISO 9001, and OHSHA 18001.

Q. What is e-scrap?

A. Electronic scrap (e-scrap) continues to be a worldwide waste problem. In 2007, the EPA estimated that discarded electronics represented 2.25 million tons. The majority of these products (about 1.8 million tons) were disposed of in landfills with only 414,000 tons recycled. Since then laws have been enacted throughout the US and in many countries to not allow E-waste to be land filled. E-Waste is highly toxic to the environment. Each item is made of approximately 40% heavy metals--such as lead, mercury, & cadmium—these items contaminate our landfills which creates many environmental hazards in surrounding areas.

Ecovery, LLC remains committed to zero exporting of items for recycling and is a 100% landfill free facility.

Q. What is the difference between Sanitization / Wiping of hard drives versus Ecovery's method?

A. Sanitization / Wiping is the process of masking information recorded on a hard drive by overwriting with random, meaningless data. Ecovery's method of guaranteeing your information is destroyed starts by sending your electronic data through a hammer mill followed by an impact mill so the drive is broken into pieces and ready for recycling.