Used IT equipment is regulated waste
In Europe, end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment falls under Directive 2012/19/EU, transposed in France into the Environmental Code. A dead SSD, server or RAM module is business WEEE: it must not be thrown out with ordinary waste, and the company holding it remains responsible for its treatment until final disposal or recovery.
In practice, the company must hand its WEEE to an approved compliance scheme, a registered collector or a buyer who guarantees processing through a compliant channel. It must also be able to prove that hand-over in the event of an inspection.
Traceability: what you must be able to show
- Proof of hand-over for every outgoing batch: collection note, buy-back invoice or the buyer's certificate.
- The waste register: companies must keep an up-to-date chronological record of the waste they produce, its nature, quantity and destination.
- Hazardous waste tracking where applicable: some equipment (old monitors, batteries) falls under the electronic hazardous waste tracking system; memory components generally do not.
- Proof that the data was dealt with: wiping or destruction of the media, increasingly requested by statutory auditors and cyber insurers.
GDPR: data before the skip
The GDPR requires personal data to be protected throughout its life cycle, storage media included. An SSD or drive that leaves the company with readable data is a potential breach, even if it goes "for recycling". Article 32 requires appropriate technical measures: for a storage device, that means secure erasure or destruction.
Two approaches complement each other: wipe the media before they leave (see our guide on wiping an SSD before parting with it), and choose a buyer whose process guarantees that no data is read and nothing is resold as is. At Recychips, media are dismantled in our workshop: the memory chips are reused as components, never as data carriers.
Dispose, donate or sell: three compliant routes
Compliance does not require destruction: it requires traceability and processing by the rules. Three routes are possible:
- Standard WEEE collection (compliance scheme, business recycling centre): compliant, but with no financial return.
- Donation or reuse: extends the life of working equipment, provided the data is wiped and the transfer is documented.
- Selling to a specialist buyer: the equipment has value even if it no longer works. SSDs, servers and memory contain reusable components: selling them funds compliance instead of making it a cost.
What a used fleet is worth
Memory components keep a value regardless of whether they work: a failed SSD is bought at the same price as a working SSD of the same format, because it is the NAND chips that are valued. For a business fleet, the typical batches — SAS and U.2 enterprise SSDs, NVMe SSDs, ECC RAM modules — are precisely the most sought after.
Verified business accounts (SIRET or EU VAT number) get a volume-based trade price list: the larger the batch, the higher the price per terabyte. Shipping is free from 20 TB (estimated), and a certificate of processing is provided on request — precisely the document that is so often missing from the compliance file.
The process, step by step
- Take stock of the outgoing equipment: types, quantities, capacities (the label is enough).
- Wipe the media that hold data, or have them destroyed; keep a record of the operation.
- Request an online quote: one line per type of equipment, instant price.
- Ship the batch or have it collected; keep the shipping note.
- File the accepted offer, the proof of payment and the certificate of processing in the waste register.
