Donations of used computers are our life-blood and vital to the success of our work. It’s because of the valuable contributions from our donors that we’re able to continue to thrive and achieve our mission. As leaders in environmental stewardship, we focus our efforts on first renewing all computer donations, by working to refurbish each unit to extend their life cycle for additional years of meaningful use.
We receive donations from federal departments and agencies that make surplus computer equipment available to us through the Computers for Schools program as part of the Federal Electronic Waste Strategy. We have first right of refusal for all donated technology, as mandated by the federal government. In addition, we work with over 80 corporate donors to ensure that we have the technology to meet the growing need for computers for Ontarians.
When donated computers arrive at an RCT facility, they are unpacked, counted, sometimes re-skidded and moved to the appropriate secure storage area. All RCT facilities are locked, have alarm systems and follow the RCT security policy which captures Federal government requirements and ERRS requirements.
To ensure data sanitization of the hard drive, RCT uses a device provided to us by the Federal Government called a Destroyinator. The Machine uses Killdisk Industrial and is HIPAA compliant, supporting U.S. DoD erasure. It uses a triple pass write overwrite write scheme that will eliminate all traces of data that remained on the hard drive. A Technician ensures that each hard drive was successfully sanitized. Any drives that are unable to properly wipe or that show errors are destroyed on site by physical destruction methods prior to sending them for destruction to a certified OES approved recycler.
RCT is certified as an Ontario Electronic Stewardship (OES) Reuse & Refurbishment organization as well as a Collector under the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Program. As an approved OES Service Provider, RCT is audited annually against these standards.
It takes roughly 240 kg (530 pounds) of fossil fuels; 22 kg (48 pounds) of chemicals and 5 tons of water to manufacture a brand new computer. Which makes #Reuse the most sustainable practice as it extends the life cycle of technology while also reducing the manufacturing of a brand new computer, ultimately reducing our carbon footprint!
If you are interested in donating your IT surplus computers to RCT, please take a look at our donations page here.
