That’s how many tons of waste the United States created in 2001. That’s 818,058,000,000 (818 billion fifty-eight million) pounds of garbage. Of that, thirty-two percent was recycled. So, each person threw away more than a ton, but recycled less than half of one.

We have to do better than that.

Recycling isn’t a new idea. Following a string of terrible environmental disasters in the 1960s and 1970s, the world woke up and started passing environmental acts: laws to reverse, slow, or stop abuse of the planet. In America, these laws include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, Energy Policy Act, Food Quality Protection Act, etc. There’s a lot of them. People themselves also started doing their part. Thought to be a thing of war time when tin drives and rubber rationing were used to provide war material, recycling has snowballed into an almost omnipresent practice. Cities and towns have their own recycling plants, and garbage collecting companies often provide separate bins for recyclables to those on their routes. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) insists that manufacturers buy recycled raw materials whenever it is possible.

It continues to be the responsibility of individuals to take care of the planet and not be more wasteful than is needed. There are countless ways a person can do this. Using recyclable paper bags for groceries (or even better, canvas bags) cut down on the number of plastic bags needed, which saves resources and wildlife (hint: plastic bags are hard to digest). People who download software save the material and cost necessary to package and ship copies of the software. Taking recyclables to a sorting center, or setting them aside for collection with the trash, helps. Items that can be recycled include glass, metal, concrete, plastics, paper, timber, and sometimes even paint.

Are you the kind of person who almost never throws away anything? Would you seriously consider getting that neat triangular loop that denotes “reduce, reuse and recycle” tattooed on you somewhere conspicuous? Do you keep on wearing your Baby Phat gear until it is about ready to seductively fall off into useless rags? If all of that is the case, then you are probably the kind of person who recycles a lot. But you do have to be careful, when you recycle what you could have thrown away. The law states that anything you put out to have hauled away may be hauled away by anybody – including a clever, ambitious identity thief.

Identity thieves can do a lot with very little. Their general MO is to find some kind of garbage (which also works online), take it to some alley somewhere, and rifle through it like a raccoon pawing through for its own kind of nourishment. It may take them awhile to find any information that they could use to steal your identity, but sooner or later a person tends to find what they are looking for. And with your personal information on the line, a thief can afford to be as patient as he pleases. Anything that has any kind of information about you should not hit your recycle bin or trash can in an intact state. Paper shredders are your friend.

Consider that the minimum amount of information that may be required to take out a credit card application on you is your social security number, name and address. While getting those nine special digits may take awhile, your name and address can be just the first place for the thief to start.

What used to be “private information” is now common knowledge. Social security numbers are written down on every job application, licensing request, and other official forms; credit card numbers are easily stolen; and names, addresses and telephone numbers can be found almost instantaneously (remember that telemarketer call during dinner?).

To keep up in today’s world and also secure their privacy, a person must a) be willing to compromise, b) be shrewd and careful, and c)do all they can to protect themselves.

a) As stated, to do business and go about normal life, sensitive information must be exchanged. You run the risk of someone stealing it and getting you into a heap of trouble, but its a necessary risk. It requires a degree of trust in others. Just don’t compromise too much.

b) Don’t throw your information out there. There’s plenty of ways to give the information needed, when it’s needed, without foolishly jeopardizing yourself. And, as a precursor to step C, do all you can. Using JCPenney coupon codes and cash to pay for something is better than risking your debit card. It doesn’t take a dishonest person long to write down a number, verification number, and expiration date.

c) People can take steps to ensure their information is safe. Data protection is often offered by companies, and certain parts of your personal information are sacred enough that almost everyone knows to respect your privacy: financial records, criminal records, genetic material, and ethnicity, among others.

Data protection software is also offered by, or sometimes built into, software that will both a) back up work being done, in the case of a computer crash or other malfunction; and b) protect sensitive information from prying eyes. Businesses must make sure that their emails are secure and cannot be read by other parties.  For the rest of us, be trusting, be shrewd, be careful, and you’ll be fine.

Data is the most secure and important aspect of computers. When computers are recycled and reused or donated to charity, data recycling is also a vital security measure that has to be taken into account. What exactly is data recycling? Data is stored in our workstations and data security is a crucial part of computer recycling. Federal regulations authorize no information security leaks in the life-span of secure data including its demolition and recycling. There are several federal laws and regulations as well as HIPAA, FACTA, Sarbanes-Oxley and GLB that help administer the data life span and require that organizations with a sensitive or regular profile data keep their data protected.

Recycling computers can be hazardous while handling critical data, especially to the establishments which store tax reports or their employee details. Many wipe their hard disk clean before trashing their old computer systems, however only a few depend on a specialist or any third party to clear the data before it gets recycled. Nevertheless, industry standards suggest and advise a 3X overwriting procedure for thorough protection from repossessing private data and this could mean that the hard drive needs to be cleaned 3 times to ensure the data cannot be reclaimed and probably misused by others.

There are several ways to destroy confidential data and prevent misuse. With identity theft becoming the order of the day, customer data and private information needs to be kept completely secured. Customer information when lost, stolen or misplaced affects many with identity theft and can cause conglomerates to lose more than just money. The reputation and integrity of a company is affected. Some of the corporations who hold vital data are banks, credit card corporations and pharmaceuticals.

Data recycling should be done in an effective and secure manner and the regular procedures for effective data recycling is to receive the hardware for destruction in protected and sheltered transport vehicles, tear up the hard drives completely, and divide the aluminum from the waste metals with an electromagnet and to cast the rest of the hard parts into aluminum blocks.

Computers play a major role in our everyday life as technology keeps advancing. With prices coming down and computers and IT equipment replaced on regular intervals, the question is, what happens to the older ones. According to a recent survey, the market for refurbished computers has gone up by over 500% in the last couple of years, still only about 20% of trashed computers are recycled. In some countries around a million tones of electronic and electrical wastes are produced and the computer parts are nearly 40% of the waste. Mostly these wastes are buried or burnt and this is a threat to the environment as computers have toxic materials and hazardous wastes like lead that could damage the environment.

While talking of damages, the other most important damage that could happen when computers are recycled or trashed is data theft. The major concern of recycling computers is that sensitive and personal data that is on the hard drive could get misused and lead to attacks on individuals or corporations. Many companies who specialize in distribution or re-sales of old computers and equipments ensure that the hard disk is first reformatted and all private data completely erased. However it is important that one checks for themselves rather than leave the task to someone else who could carelessly overlook vital information.

Many computer users are not technically savvy yet there are basics which every user should know and understand. The best thing before one decides to dispose of their computer is to ensure that the hard disk is wiped clean and devoid of any important or confidential data. If your computer has been used for business purposes then under the Data Protection Act, every information which has been collected on your computer and hard disk should be destroyed with the storage system remained on – in other words with the hard drive being no longer used for business. A more responsible individual or company should take preventive measure like completely erasing or overwriting their hard disk before recycling. Data recycling needs to be done effectively or it could cost one dearly.

Effective Data Recycling is mandatory these days, especially with rampant identity thefts, phishing and data theft. Most of us store our important and private data on our hard drives, but when it comes to recycling almost all of us do not follow preventive measures to protect our data.

The increase in storage of private and sensitive data along with the advancement of technology and the short life-span of IT possessions has made permanent data recycling methods mandatory. The advancement of phone-banking, internet-banking, online purchases etc have made information easily accessible. Not every website is secure and sometimes information gets leaked and falls into the wrong hands. The issue of the data on hard drives being misused is also another cause for concern.

Electronic items like computers should be refurbished in the right manner to prevent misuse and identity theft. Another way of getting at private data is through loss of laptops or compromised networks or any other portable media which contains information of an individual or a corporation. These data storage mediums are the escalating sources of data violations these days.

If the data is not recycled in the right manner when the hard disk is trashed, lost or stolen, a corporation or individual faces the likelihood of losing data which can be stolen or compromised carrying forward to identity theft, loss of status, financial collisions or intimidation and blackmail, both corporate and personal. Though strict standards are being followed to diminish the risk of unofficial exposure of confidential corporate and government data, still there are ways and means of the information being leaked. This leads to breaches in credit card, social security numbers or bank information and can be quite critical.

Data recycling methods like data erasure via overwriting can function only on hard drives that are functional and writing to every sector. Bad segment cannot be overwritten and can sometimes contain retrievable information. Hence the hard disk drive needs to be disposed of properly and if no other methods work out, it is preferably done through a shredder.

It is important for companies to eliminate secure data from any recycleable computer storage system (hard drive). Even though a file may be deleted from the computer, it can never be deleted from the storage system and can still be accessed or recovered. Many people know that it is quite simple to recover documents from a computer even though the file may be deleted. Hence, it is mandatory to completely erase, wipe out or degauss information or private data from computers. Many other methods are regularly being developed and updated.

There are three techniques used to remove private and sensitive data: Clearing, Sanitizing and Destroying and they can be used to remove any important information from the storage devices and help prevent data from getting stolen, lost or disclosed in an insecure place where it could fall in to the wrong hands.

Countermeasures should be taken before any computers, storage mediums or systems are taken out of companies. Data clearing and sanitizing are required to be done to a required standard. Data Destroying and recycling organizations provide different types of methods to help companies with the elimination of data and to avert any data from being released into an insecure place where the data could be recovered.

There are different methods which are easy for companies and businesses to choose from and they can take the most preferred method which will be helpful and secure enough to safeguard their data. Data destroying or destruction is one of the most preferred methods taken by companies to make it hard to recover private data, however, though it is hard to recover the data, it is not impossible and there are ways and means of getting the information out. The best form of data destruction where the data cannot be recovered under any circumstances is by melting, shredding, crushing and drilling. The only disadvantage of this method of data destruction is that storage media or computers cannot be refurbished and reused.

There are various methods of data recycling to help protect private data from misuse. However, the most fool-proof methods are through clearing, sanitizing and destroying. These three methods can ensure that the vital data is not just destroyed but also cannot be recovered by any means. In other words, data once cleaned, sanitized and destroyed can never be misused by anyone else leading to identity theft and other critical information loss. There are data destruction companies who render their services to completely eliminate all data to prevent phishing and theft attacks, and there are a few secure data destruction companies who even provide on-site methods of data removing and destruction to make sure that all of the secure data is being removed right in front of your eyes so no misuse can take place.

On-site data destruction methods are best for companies who preserve valuable information, since they know what exactly is happening to the information and that it is being destroyed completely. This method gives much more peace of mind since things are done in front of you and you are assured that junk which leaves your premises does not contain any information which can be used against your company or any individual connected to your company. However, for these on-site companies to operate at your premises they need to have their machinery and equipments first approved by the government before they can be used to recycle or destroy your data. Also these equipments and machinery need to meet certain specifications and standards to make sure that they are suitable and can cater to the requirements of companies such as yours.

Before you take any method of data destruction, analyze the type of data stored and how important it is for you and the company. This can help choose the right method of recycling and find out which is appropriate and tailored for your requirements. A few data destruction companies also provide advice and inputs for the most suitable method of data-recycling for you. Therefore it is important to first understand the need and then act accordingly.

Effectively recycled data prevents misuse and identity theft of an individual or company’s confidential information. However, the other effectual method is the method of software-based overwriting which can completely eradicate the entire electronic data present on a hard disk drive and digital medium.

Permanent data recycling methods remove all private data thoroughly, beyond basic file deletions, which only remove the direct indicators of data disk segments and can make data recovery quite simple with ordinary software tools. There is nothing like degaussing and physically destroying the hard disk which are permanent methods of preventing any usage of the hard disk and ensures that the entire disk is unusable. Data Erasure eliminates all data and allows the disk to be functional; this procedure can conserve possessions and the atmosphere.

Software-based overwriting uses a software application to inscribe blueprints of insignificant data onto every part of a hard drive’s segment. There are differentiators between data erasure and other overwriting techniques, which can keep the data in one piece and increase the risk of data violation or leak, identity theft and failure to accomplish authoritarian fulfillment. Data erasure also provides numerous overwrites as required by documented government and industry principles, and it supplies corroboration of data removal which is imperative for attaining particular standards.

To shield data on misplaced or stolen mediums, some data erasure software vaguely wipe out data if the password is entered inaccurately. The data erasure applications can also aim at explicit data on a hard disk drive for periodical erasure that can provide a mantle of protection over data encryption.

The IT (Information Technology) resources generally contain large capacities of private data. These include credit card numbers, classified information, social security numbers, bank details and medical history that are normally stored on the hard drives or servers. These can unintentionally or intentionally find their way into other media such as USB, REV, Printers, Flash, Jaz and Zip drives. Data can sometimes be recovered from even a wrecked hard drive; hence it becomes imperative that the data recycling methods taken to prevent misuse are 100% infallible.