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Preparing Your Electronics for Recycling

Preparing For Pickup

  • Business: Thank you for having the material staged in an accessible location prior to service. Staging the items near a ground level entrance or elevator access is appreciated.
  • Schools: Thank you for having the material staged near a ground level entrance prior to service.
  • Residential: Thank you for having the material staged outside of a ground level entrance or just inside a garage entry. Please have billable items, such as lamps/batteries/ink/toner/media, separated out from the electronics, whenever possible. I’ve attached thorough instructions for sorting and insulating batteries as needed. Please note the significant price difference for sorted/insulated batteries vs. mixed batteries.
  1. Please remove and separate all removable batteries, such as Alkaline, from devices like remote controls, alarms, radios etc. Laptop and tool batteries can remain with the device.
  2. Please remove and separate all packaging. We can recycle your cardboard, styrofoam but ask that it be separated. 
  3. CD’s, DVD’s, Cassette, VHS, DLT and all types of magnetic media should be sorted and kept separate from the other e-waste. These are recyclable however there is a per pound fee.
  4. Ink/toner cartridges can remain in printers. However, if you have loose cartridges, please have these separate from the e-waste. Toner bottles and ribbons are not recyclable. Please dispose of these by other means.
  5. Have items sorted and grouped together with like items. 
  6. No loose items. Please keep wire, cables, mice and keyboards separated from other e-waste and in a container. GCER can provide a container, please request at time of scheduling.
  7. Have items on a ground level near an exit so that it is accessible to GCER staff. Please, let us know of any special requirements at the time of pick up. 
When data destruction is performed back at our shop, there is no need to pull/prep hard drives. However, if you do have a quantity of loose hard drives, mobile devices, or other sensitive data containing items (such as thumb drives, media, etc) please have these separated from your mixed electronics. Let us know at time of scheduling and we will dispatch a locked roll cart for additional security during transport. 
 

If you are including tablets, mobile devices, or other applicable material, we ask that they be removed from iCloud or any other management services prior to service. When mobile devices are prepared in this way we are able to use a piece of proprietary software to clear the data, verify data has been wiped, collect serial numbers and issue certificates based on this secure data destruction.

  • Apple devices: remove iCloud lock or remote management, no need to clear individual device pin locks. This means you do not need access to each individual device. In the event we cannot access Apple Devices due to remote management or iCloud lock: We can still wipe them and verify wipe however there is no re-use. 
  • Android devices: We will need these placed in ‘developer mode’. So, we ask that all pin locks be removed. In the event we cannot access Android devices, We cannot wipe or destroy data, software is unable to access. We can ONLY physically destroy and cannot verify data destruction. 

 

Prepare your mobile devices for recycling:

For Apple Devices

 You can use the Find My iPhone app on an iOS device.

  1. Sign in with your Apple ID 
  2. Select the device that you donated
  3. Tap Actions (if you are not taken straight into Actions) 

***Note: Skip straight to Step 6 if the device has already been erased, or if the device is listed as “Offline” in the list.

  1. Tap Erase iPhone and tap Erase iPhone again 
  2. Tap Erase and confirm 
  3. Tap Remove from Account and confirm again. 

You can use iCloud.com/find on a Computer 

  1. Navigate to iCloud.com/find on a computer and sign in with your Apple ID 
  2. Click All Devices at the top of the screen 
  3. Select the device that you have donated ***Note: Skip straight to Step 5 if the device has already been erased, or if the device is listed as “Offline” in the list. 
  4. Click Erase iPhone and confirm action 
  5. Click Remove from Account and confirm. 

You can also find the instructions on Apple’s website here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201441 

Hours: Monday through Friday 8 to 5, Saturday 11-3

 

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We service Oregon and Washington

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