Computer disposal raises legal issues.

• Position: Legal liability - Environmental, privacy concerns

As industries everywhere become more reliant on technology, two new and challenging obstacles are emerging: the safe and legal disposal of outdated computer equipment, and the digital or physical data destruction of client information. This equipment comes in the form of computer monitors, hard drives, printers, copiers, etc. In the past, this equipment may have been placed into storage, donated to a school or sent to the dumpster.

However, notes Joseph P. Harford, vice president at Reclamere Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company that handles disposition of such equipment, none of these disposal methods addresses the environmental or legal responsibilities an organization faces. He says three critical questions have to be asked:

* Does the organization have a plan in place for the removal/disposal of outdated computer equipment?

* Does this plan adhere to appropriate federal, state and local environmental laws for the equipment removal/recycling?

* Does this plan follow the laws regarding the privacy of client data that may still reside on the computers in question?

Harford notes that the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which addresses the proper disposal of hazardous material, categorizes such common computer materials as lead (in glass), mercury, cadmium and arsenic as hazardous materials.

In fact, in 2002 the Environment Protection Agency filed to collect more than $410,000 in total fines from two New York colleges, Manhattan College and Pratt Institute, for the improper disposal of hazardous waste that included computer monitors.

Short of disposition, destroying data offers a way to keep the computers in use. Yet data destruction is not as simple and straightforward as "formatting" the computer's hard drive, which Harford says "is in no way secure, complete or reliable." He notes that the U.S. Department of...