Earth Day! Time to Safely Offload All Those Old Electronics
Southfield facility offers data wiping while hiring those with barriers to employment
As Earth Day approaches, operators of a Southfield-based non-profit want to collect as much e-waste as possible. JVS is expanding a program that helps train people living with physical and mental disabilities who have barriers to employment. eCycle Opportunities accepts most electronic trash including cell phones, TV’s, and computers. General Manager Stacey Lareau says the facility is two years old. She says operations grew by 50% last year, including recycling nearly a half million pounds of electronics.
“First and foremost it’s data security. When you have a computer or a laptop or even some office copiers, they have a hard drive and so we want to be sure that the data doesn’t get anywhere. We have a hard drive shredder on site. So every piece of equipment, whether the customer requests it or not, has the hard drive pulled so that the data is not traceable” -Stacy Lareau, JVS
Lareau says TV’s and printers are the only items that require a fee for disposal. Earth Day is this Sunday.
