Hardware Retirement and eWaste at the U

University Policy 3-40 requires equipment which is no longer usable or no longer required by the University to be sent to the University Surplus and Salvage Department (US&S) for disposal. This includes equipment purchased for less than five thousand dollars ($5,000).

The US&S Process

All items are initially on sale to University departments for 15 days, then to the general public for a total of 60 days. After that:

  • Many electronics are parted at US&S.
  • All rechargeable batteries are processed through Environmental Health &Safety (EH&S) for collection from GRX (Guaranteed Recycling eXperts).
  • All circuit boards are removed from electronics and sent to Cascade Refining.*
  • All wire and metals considered scrap metal and sent to Western Metals and Utah Metals.
  • All hard drives are pulled from computers, drives with known sensitive information are crushed and then placed with scrap metal.
  • All other drives are "wiped" with DBAN software and resold in US&S.
  • Cell phones, collected through US&S are processed through EH&S for disposal with GRX. There are very few due to the university's current cell phone plan which makes the phone the property of the individual and not the University.
  • Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) are processed through EH&S and sent to GRX.
  • All other items which are not scrap metal (wood, plastics, etc) are placed in the Plant Ops dumpster which is provided by Ace Disposal.  Items from this dumpster are sorted at their transfer station and recyclables are processed accordingly.

*Cascade pays better than Western Metals; their refining/smelting process is not known