In two years, your new smartphone could be little more than a paperweight. It might seem crazy that an expensive device like a smartphone could have such a short lifespan, but with the average life of a handset in the U.S. sitting at about 21 months according to Recon Analytics, the facts speak for themselves.  If you’re like a lot of people, your old phones are now in a drawer hiding among the binder clips, batteries, matchbooks and pens that might magically start working again.  The caricature of dad and his flip phone is less and less relevant. Because our phones can do so much more and thus get used so much more, they also get dropped, dunked, stepped on, and run over.  It’s why carriers sell insurance.

Computers fare better, but not a lot better.  Most PCs or laptops will last three to five years before the dreaded Blue Screen of Death or whatever the Apple equivalent is.  Hard drives crash.  Corrupted software renders the machine inert.  Software companies stop supporting the system running the machine.  And that’s not to mention the dramatic improvement in computer performance realized over a three year old machine.  You’ll get better graphics, more memory, faster processors and new programs probably won’t work on an older machine.  Once again, after the information from the old machine is transferred to the new one, the computer tower or laptop is put someplace out of sight and mind until it’s time to move or make room for that workshop in the basement.

Some people don’t want to throw the machine out so they “recycle” it, dropping it off someplace and driving away.  Those machines are placed on a pallet with 40 other machines, shrink wrapped and sold by the pound to whoever is willing to pay.  The new owners will cut away the shrink wrap and turn on the machine to see if it works and from there, it’s anyone’s guess what happens.  It is certainly not how you want to protect your financial records, emails, saved passwords and the like.  Likewise, phones get dropped in cardboard bins at Starbucks or Best Buy or the grocery store and they share the same fate.  Lots of information is stored on the SIM card that helps you connect to your carrier and more is stored on the memory in your smartphone.

The only way to be really sure is to destroy the hard drive or smartphone.  If you bring in a loose hard drive, we will shred it while you wait.  We can even scan the serial number and send you a Certificate of Destruction.  If you don’t know how to access the hard drive in your PC or laptop, bring it in along with the peripherals and we will remove and shred the hard drive and recycle the rest of the equipment.  And here is a word of advice: DO NOT try to shred a smart phone yourself.  The batteries inside do not respond kindly and can ignite.  More than one shred truck has burned down to the axels because a phone or laptop went through the shredder unnoticed and set three tons of paper on fire.  Let us take care of this stuff the right way.  We will protect you.