Recycle used IT&C equipment responsibly

You recycle used IT&C (IT and communications) equipment responsibly by handing it over to an authorized operator or a collection system for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE, known in Romania as DEEE), after securely wiping the data on it, and by keeping the handover documents as proof.

One of the most common questions we get from clients is how to get rid of IT&C equipment they no longer use, legally and with all the necessary paperwork, so they’re covered from a legal standpoint.

The European legal framework on waste electrical and electronic equipment is transposed in Romania by Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) 5/2015, which replaced HG 1037/2010. The law requires individuals and companies that own WEEE to hand it over to collection systems for reuse or recycling, and prohibits throwing it away with unsorted municipal waste.

There are several options: some companies charge to take the equipment, others charge only for transport, but you can also donate the equipment, at no cost to you, to associations that collect and recycle used IT&C equipment.

What do you do with the data on old equipment?

Before you hand over a computer, laptop, server, phone or multifunction printer, securely wipe the data on it. These devices still hold company documents, passwords and personal data of clients and employees, for which the company remains responsible under the GDPR even after the equipment has left. Deleting files or formatting isn’t enough: the data can be recovered.

• Traditional hard drives are wiped with software that overwrites the entire disk.
• SSDs are wiped with the manufacturer’s secure erase command; if the drive was encrypted (for example with BitLocker), deleting the encryption key makes the data impossible to read.
• Phones and tablets are removed from the company accounts and reset to factory settings.
• Multifunction printers often keep printed and scanned documents on their disk, so their disk must be wiped too.
• Drives that can no longer be wiped (faulty or very old) are physically destroyed.

If someone else does the wiping, ask for a data erasure or destruction certificate listing the equipment serial numbers.

How do you hand over used IT&C equipment?

1. List the equipment you’re retiring, with the type and serial number of each item.
2. Wipe the data as described above, or ask for certified erasure.
3. Remove the equipment from your accounting records by writing it off, if it was a fixed asset or an inventory item.
4. Hand the equipment over to an authorized operator or a WEEE collection system and ask for the handover document.
5. Keep the documents as proof that you handed over the equipment as required by law.

Who takes used IT&C equipment?

For collecting used IT&C equipment, the partner we work with is Ateliere Fără Frontiere (Workshops Without Borders), a Romanian non-governmental association where used computers are turned into jobs. The association collects used IT&C equipment, refurbishes or recycles it, and provides jobs and vocational training to people in difficulty.

By donating your equipment through our partner, Ateliere Fără Frontiere:

• you get rid of the IT&C equipment you no longer use;
• you receive the documents that prove the handover;
• the equipment is picked up free of charge, in Bucharest and the surrounding area, within 7 calendar days of your request, according to the association;
• you support a social cause at the same time and reduce waste: equipment that still works is refurbished and reaches the people who need it.

According to the association’s website, more than 30,000 refurbished computers have been donated through its educlick program since 2008, benefiting 3,163 educational organizations.

To donate equipment, fill in the WEEE collection form, and the association’s team will contact you to arrange the pickup.

When is it worth replacing old equipment?

Old equipment doesn’t just cost what it’s worth: it also costs you in lost employee time, repairs and security risks, especially once it no longer receives updates. We wrote about this in the article Let’s talk about the cost of using worn-out equipment.

Through IT maintenance, RezolvIT looks after your company’s computers, servers and network so you can use them as long as possible, and helps you prepare old equipment for handover. We start with a free IT audit, which also gives you the exact price.