PLANITROI, in keeping with recommendations of The Gartner Group and EPA, concedes that equipment three or more years old generally has little value, and selling this equipment may not cover the costs of collecting and disposing of it in an environmentally sound manner.

PLANITROI offers several programs to reduce the amount of equipment needing environmental disposal:

Resale
Resale is always the best use; it provides a total environmentally sound solution. When there is the opportunity for mobile products there is significant return. All other products three years or older lead to burdensome costs.

Redeployment
Reusable assets may be suitable for different workgroups or business units after minimal refurbishing and data erasure.

Demanufactured for spare parts
Unusable assets may be a source for spare parts to support IT services.

Donation
Non-profit partnerships can benefit from assets that would provide small economic returns. There are soft-cost returns in areas of public relations and employee morale.

Employee transaction
Consider one of several plans to make old assets available to employees for home use. This could be a sale or giveaway option. Remember licensing, warranty, tax, help-desk and budget issues may arise.

Extended warranty
PLANITROI can provide warranty uplift to extend asset life, often at end-of-lease or extended periods before new product rollouts.

Storage
PLANITROI provides surplus asset storage for minimum fees.

Moreover, there are environmental risks and regulations including EPA, state government and local toxic-waste requirements. Although each computer may only contain small amounts of dangerous elements, uncontrolled disposal of the multiplicity of computers can lead to cross-contamination and significant amounts of hazardous compounds. Failure to comply with federal, state, and local disposal guidelines can subject a company to fines and even criminal prosecution. PLANITROI is authorized by the NJDEP and recognized by the EPA.
Here is a description of hazardous materials found in computers.

"Some electronic products (notably those with cathode ray tubes or CRTs, circuit boards, batteries, and mercury switches) contain hazardous or toxic materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, and some types of flame-retardants, and do so in amounts that may cause them to test hazardous under federal law. In particular, the glass screens, or CRTs in computer monitors and televisions can contain as much as 27 percent lead. Some estimate that since many batteries (such as car batteries) have started to be removed from waste disposal, electronic products represent the largest remaining contributor of heavy metals to the solid waste stream. There is concern, particularly at the state and local levels, that products containing these constituents might pose some environmental risks if they are not properly managed at end-of-life."

EPA "WasteWise Update" Electronic Reuse and Recycling, Dated 12/00

PLANITROI fully complies with regulations for handling universal waste as defined by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. After adoption in 2002 of new stricter environmental guidelines, the NJDEP published a list of approved handlers of spent computers and CRT monitors, including PLANITROI.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/lrm/uwrcompu.htm

Example Process
A recent project for a large international financial institution shows how PLANITROI assists in the proper management of retired IT equipment, including environmental disposal where necessary.

1. On site Audit. Either PLANITROI or the customer can sort equipment on site based on condition, age and value of technology according to PLANITROI and The Gartner Group "Used Value List." This permits sending any defective or valueless equipment directly to recycling without incurring extra expenses.

2. Depot Audit. Upon receipt of equipment from a customer, PLANITROI identifies units by type of asset then categorizes them by condition, age and value of technology according to PLANITROI's and The Gartner Group's "Used Value List." Then, PLANITROI records into database: (manufacturer, model, serial number, cosmetic check) and sorts for VALUELESS and physically damaged units to be recycled or disassembled for parts. Next, a general diagnostic test is performed and all the results are "scanned and recorded" into a database with "full" configuration along with damage and missing parts codes. As part of the procedures on equipment with drives or recordable media, PLANITROI performs a drive erasure according to customer specifications from a Level 1 to a DOD level 7. At this point, all asset tags are removed along with any other material identifying the company. A final completeness check of all necessary components required bringing it to an A Grade product are checked. Equipment that is damaged beyond repair or that needs repairs costing more than its resale value is set aside for recycling.

3. Refurbishment & Repair. Equipment that needs minor repairs is audited to identify the most efficient repair process. When replacement parts are needed, a search is initially made from among the units designated for recycling. This minimizes part and disposal costs, improves marketability of the customer's equipment and reduces strain on environmental landfills.

4. Component De-manufacture. As PLANITROI collects defective equipment with component value it designates those components for resale during the audit and refurbishment process. The equipment is then stripped of its components with value for resale as a component or to enhance a product that needs repair. Without impacting efficiency in the refurbishment process, this also reduces the amount of equipment designated for recycling.

5. Environmental disposal. PLANITROI is authorized by the State of New Jersey to handle universal waste, including computer equipment. As regulations become more stringent, PLANITROI pays close attention to environmental regulations to protect our customers. We deliver valueless and damaged equipment to an EPA recognized recycler. Since the EPA does not certify recyclers PLANITROI researches their recycling practices and secures recommendations from The Gartner Group. PLANITROI chooses facilities that track and destroy completely all computer-related equipment and provide you with a full indemnification certificate. PLANITROI does not engage in overseas waste disposal. This practice is generally less expensive but potentially illegal. PLANITROI manages all universal waste equipment in the U.S. We do not export waste materials. We sell computer equipment overseas only to partners who obey local recycling policies. We monitor changing international regulations to ensure our partners overseas are compliant.

6. What level of Recycling does PLANITROI provide? PLANITROI works with recyclers to ensure proper disposal of valueless computer equipment. Units are destroyed in machines that crush them and turn them into small particles, separated by composition:
a) Glass particles are delivered at cost to a smelter and used as flux to extract lead from the residual dust, which gets molded into brick-shaped lead blocks.
b) Metal residue is sold to a scrap dealer for little more than the cost of transportation.
c) Plastic and metal scrap particles, including circuit board remnants, are melted down at a smelter at no cost, for iron and precious metals. Plastic residue is converted into resin, a resource for energy generation.

In this case, the client significantly reduced its service costs for recycling retired equipment. PLANITROI clients generate revenue, receive certification of indemnification for disposed assets, and reduce their environmental liability and impact.

PLANITROI along with The Gartner Group and EPA recommend a full program that includes remarketing of working equipment to generate funds to support proper environmental disposal and other support operations. Whether a company chooses an ambitious program of charitable donations or an aggressive campaign for marketing surplus equipment, close attention must be paid to documented disposal in line with federal, state and local environmental regulations. PLANITROI is your authorized source for management of hazardous computer components.

The same is true for companies that coordinate a program for cascading or reallocating equipment across the enterprise. Often, this leads to extended life for machines beyond the standard three-to-four year cycle. If a company can balance the increased costs for maintaining old equipment with reduced purchasing costs over an extended timeframe, then the cost of proper environmental disposal must be a part of the same equation.

Instead of producing revenue from the residual value of surplus assets, the reallocation process results in higher costs for collection and disposal. It is generally recommended that a consistent process for selling assets when they have some residual value is the best way to mitigate the costs of maintenance and disposal.