We feel that information is crucial for you to make the right decisions, thus, we created this IT Facts section to help you better understand your liabilities and obligations as it relates to the disposal of your obsolete IT equipment.

Can you afford $25,000?

According to the RCRA, you could be fined up to $25,000 per day, per machine that is improperly disposed. Recently, AT&T was fined $195,000 for the improper disposal of their obsolete IT equipment. In addition to the fine, AT&T also suffered from bad publicity as a result.

At CDS, Inc., we dispose your obsolete IT equipment in accordance with the EPA guidelines in addition to our ATR^TM process, so you gain peace of mind that your equipment has been properly disposed.

Is your data secure?

We have heard the stories of credit card companies losing customer records, however did you know that two MIT gradate students purchased about 158 hard drives from the internet and found that 88% of those hard drives were not properly sanitized!  Using standard recovery techniques that most skilled IT professionals are familiar with, were able to recover sensitive information from those drives! They discovered Credit card numbers, highly sensitive corporate information, social security numbers, e-mail messages, love letters, etc.!

To ensure that the information on your hard drives does not fall into the wrong hands, our proprietary ZAP^TM process destroys all the information on your hard drives and complies with the Department of Defense standard DoD 5220-22-M.

$2.3 million

With new regulations and laws like HIPAA, SB1396, SOX, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, etc., you become liable when the information on your hard drives falls into the wrong hands. A jury in Morgantown, WV, recently awarded $2.3 million to three women whose confidential health records were not kept private.

Our Disposal Logistics Chain prohibits any part of our process from being out sourced to a third party and requires our personal involvement from pickup to disposal. Other IT recycling companies will out source the pickup and delivery to a third party - which increases your risk and venerability of theft.

Where did your obsolete equipment go?

Did you know that most recyclers export your obsolete IT equipment to countries like China, where workers disassemble the equipment in unhealthy and unsafe working conditions?  As a result workers inhale the toxic chemicals, and in other cases, the water supply gets polluted with lead and other toxins that eventually migrate into the drinking water supply.

At CDS, Inc. we will never export your old IT equipment. We have a moral obligation to make sure that our materials do not become the pollution of other countries and that we do not contribute to a growing health epidemic. Environmental Safety is a top priority for our company.