The Technical Mystery Tour

Roll up. Roll up for the magical mystery tour.

Boxing Day 1968 I think, might have been 1967. My whole family and half of the Western world all gathered around their TV sets to see the Fab Four’s TV film The Magical Mystery Tour. I was 6 or 7 and loved The Beatles. I am told I once gave a lively rendition of She Loves You in the doctor’s surgery as a toddler which raised a few smiles. Unfortunately however, as the recent repeat reminded me, Magical Mystery Tour offered a few good tunes but the plot may have been over-influenced by some artificial stimuli and four creative egos rapidly spinning out of control.

However, the idea of a tour ought to remain high on our agendas, magical or otherwise. EReco are keen to show customers our secure facility in the depths of East Grinstead, because we know it is what sets us apart from the crowd. And more potential customers ought to take up our offer because when disposing of your data, you ought to do a proper risk assessment.

What? I heard a collective sharp intake of breath there. Disposing of your data? That isn’t what you are doing at all, is it? You are disposing of old IT assets, redundant kit, sometimes broken kit, but you are protecting your data, aren’t you?

Well, yes AND no.

You are engaging a partner to deal with your data, and if that partner is reputable you are protected by their systems, and insurance. So clearly your intention is not to throw the baby away with the bathwater. But, and it is a very big but, your data is still there and it is still your responsibility. If something happens you are going to need to prove that you exercised your duty of care.

Clearly it is not practical for every business to visit their supplier. If your disposals are small and irregular, some reasonable due diligence would probably suffice. However, if you are a business of reasonable size a risk assessment probably makes a lot of sense. There are no margins of error here of course. No matter how large or small your disposal is, it only takes one hard drive to go missing or not get processed, and your data is ‘out there’.

Now I am bound to approve of this sort of thing of course. EReco has substance. Our facility is not a shiny palace of recycling heaven but it is efficient, substantial and secure. We may be many things but we are not back of the van sort of people. We are not fly by night. Believe me, if you visit and I will introduce you to Karen, our process queen, and she has a form for everything and a knowledge of ISO’s and WEEE regulations that ought to have John Humphrey’s and the Mastermind team quivering in their boots.

Her majesty emphasises what eReco has and many of our competitors do not. She is the one who makes us get our waste transfer notes right. She is Miss Compliance, a dotter of I’s and a crosser of T’s that our customers need. When my eyes glaze over, she is the one who reminds me, kindly, that like it or not we all have to get the paperwork in order.

It is what we charge for and what I cannot see how anyone offering free collections can offer. And it is tangible if you take a couple of hours out of your day to come and see it for yourself. Del-boy’s lock up may not be so impressive.

And Hey Bulldog, I promise not to sing.

Sustainability and the Boomtown Rat

Life is like a flow chart. Every decision, however innocuous, sends you off in a different direction. Yes or no. Tea or coffee. In or out. We all make snap decisions that change the course of our lives all the time. We usually have no idea whether they were right or wrong. We simply have to live with the consequences of our choices.

Businesses are just the same. Good decisions can be made on the spur of the moment. Remember the guy from Decca Records in 1963. He decided that guitar bands were a thing of the past. He watched four chancers from Liverpool audition and told their manager he was not at all interested. So The Beatles signed for Parlophone instead and that funded EMI, who were one of the most successful music industry giants of all time, until the rise of iTunes.

He made up for it a year later though; he signed The Rolling Stones.

Not every decision is that important, but they all have consequences. Sustainability and the efficient reuse of our limited resources depends on us all making good decisions. Not everyone is green. Not in the campaigning sense at any rate. But given the right information, most people will separate their rubbish and put it in the right bins.

This makes a difference. Yes I know China has opened 22 coal-fired power stations since I started writing this post but that is not the point. If we all take personal responsibility for our own actions we will change things. We don’t all have to burn our bras but we do need to do our bit.

I do hate it when politicians or campaigners get preachy. They make it all sound so pious and I am sure that attitude turns as many people off as it turns on. I much preferred Bob Geldof’s fund raising style...’give some focking money’...to the Archbishop of Canterbury wittering on. That might just be me of course...

Electrical waste will become more of an issue, not less. Electronic devices are taking over. No sooner has the iPhone 6 been launched than iPhone 7 is being talked about...and that means upgrades and old kit being disposed of. According to latest figures there are now 7.19 BILLION ‘mobile devices’ in this world.

So we have to start being responsible. Not blasé, apathetic or mean-spirited, but truly responsible. I am not just talking about asset disposal either, although that is eReco’s own area of expertise and self-interest. From the manufacturers to the end user, we all have to think things through.

The cost of disposing of old kit is an irrelevance. It’s recycling is not. That does not mean a company like ours should charge you a fortune...far from it. And it does not mean that you should not be able to benefit from extending the lifecycle of equipment beyond your ownership. But it does mean that we should prioritise the recycling aspect above costs or cash back.

Price is not everything. We have all heard that before. It usually comes fourth or fifth in any survey mainly because we do not like to admit we are tight, I suspect. When buying any equipment, we should consider price but we should also consider lifecycle and sustainability.

Bob Geldof would put it rather succinctly I am sure. Paul McCartney would probably right a song about it, hopefully not with the Frog chorus. Forget about the Chinese and let’s get our own house in order.

Let’s put sustainability at the top of the agenda in 2015.