The best electronics recycling services for Canadian businesses retiring computers and monitors

A business that retires computers and monitors together wants one provider to collect both and to say what happens to the drives. eCycle Solutions is our pick for a Canadian business retiring both, because its pickup service takes computers and monitors together and it recycles them at its own five facilities in four provinces, each certified to R2. Greentec is the one to shortlist when you want the erasure process spelled out before you book, down to what happens to a device whose wipe fails. The Electronic Recycling Association suits a business that wants working equipment donated.

What a mixed load asks of a recycler

The first thing a mixed load asks is that one provider takes both kinds of equipment, and all three here name computers and monitors among the items they collect. Who packs the load is worth settling when you book, because the three differ on it.

Computers add the question of the drives, and all three providers offer data destruction. They describe it differently. eCycle's recycling pickup asks you to have electronics free of personal data, and its ITAD service takes devices with the drives intact and certifies their destruction. The Electronic Recycling Association says it wipes equipment slated for reuse and shreds drives on request. Greentec's certified erasure service wipes each device, inventories it by serial number and shreds any that fail. So the service you book matters more than the list of accepted items, and the booking should say which devices are to be wiped or shredded and what record you want back.

eCycle Solutions: both items named, four provinces covered

eCycle's pickup page lists computers and laptops alongside monitors and TVs, printers and scanners, and phones and tablets. Its FAQ adds servers, network equipment, keyboards and mice. The company runs five processing facilities in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and its certifications page lists R2 for all five. A business with offices in several of those provinces has one recycler to ask, and the pickup page says to confirm eligibility for each address. A certificate of recycling comes free with a pickup or a drop-off, and eCycle sets out any pickup or disposal charge before it schedules.

The pickup page asks customers to have electronics free of personal data and packaged against damage in transit. For monitors, that means the packing is yours to do. For computers, it gives you two routes. You can wipe the drives yourself and send everything on the recycling pickup. Or you can book eCycle's ITAD service, where the company says to hand over data-bearing devices intact so that it can certify their destruction, and where the price is quoted on volume, equipment type and the level of destruction.

Greentec: erasure spelled out, and both items on one pickup request

Greentec's pickup request page lists desktop and laptop PCs, computer monitors, cables and accessories, and networking devices among the equipment it collects from businesses, and its business pick-up page offers containers, bins or other materials for gathering the load beforehand. That covers a mixed office clear-out on one request.

For the computers, Greentec's secure destruction page sets out its certified erasure service step by step. Devices are wiped with licensed software, the inventory lists each one by make, model and serial number, and a device whose wipe fails goes to the shredder. A certificate of data erasure comes with it. Material that goes to recycling is reported on a certificate of recycling that gives the weight of each material.

So a mixed load can come back with two kinds of record: a serial-number inventory for the devices that were wiped or shredded, and weights for the material that was recycled. Say in the booking which devices belong on the serial-number list. Greentec's service matrix also marks desktops and laptops for a value return to the client.

Electronic Recycling Association: reuse first, and free for most pickups

The Electronic Recycling Association is a non-profit that puts reuse ahead of recycling. Its Simple Pickup covers computers, laptops, monitors and printers with no documentation requirements, and the association says most pickups cost nothing, with fees possible on larger jobs that need advanced services. Working devices are refurbished and donated to charities. Equipment that can't be reused goes to certified recycling partners.

On data, the association's data security page says equipment slated for reuse is wiped with software, and hard drive shredding is available at its facilities or at yours. Advanced Pickup adds serial-number reporting. That makes the association a good fit for computers that still work when donation is the outcome you want, and you can request its data wipe certificate and inventory spreadsheet as a record of them.

When the drives need more than a recycling service

All three providers offer to destroy drives at the customer's site. If your policy says no drive leaves the building intact, a provider's NAID AAA certification covers that work only when the certificate carries a mobile endorsement that names hard drives, which we explain in whether NAID AAA certification covers onsite hard-drive destruction.

A load of recent laptops is a different purchase again. When most of the equipment has resale value and you need a settlement for each serial number, you are buying IT asset disposition, and our comparison of ITAD providers for mid-market companies in Ontario is the closer guide.

A 60-desktop, 90-monitor example

Suppose an office is replacing 60 desktop computers and 90 monitors. All three providers name monitors among the equipment they collect, so the 60 desktops do most of the deciding.

If your IT team has already wiped or removed the drives, eCycle's recycling pickup takes the whole load and you get a certificate of recycling. When the drives are still in the machines, each provider has a route. eCycle's ITAD service takes them intact and certifies their destruction. Greentec's erasure service returns a serial-number inventory and a certificate of data erasure, with failed devices shredded. The Electronic Recycling Association's Advanced Pickup adds data destruction and serial-number reporting, and the association is the one to ask when the desktops still work and you would like to see them donated.

Settle what happens to the 60 drives before you book, because it decides which service you order from any of the three. Then compare the quotes on who packs the 90 monitors, which addresses each provider will collect from and what records come back.