A growing awareness of the corporate world's impact on the environment, combined with multiplying governmental rules for dealing with surplus computers and peripherals, makes it a good a time for foodservice companies to review policies and practices tied to unwanted hardware.
Irecently was educated about some of the procedures and issues related to disposal by Andrew Lynn of Regency Technologies of Solon, Ohio. Regency is a handler, reconditioner, reseller and recycler of IT equipment. It counts among recent clients Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando, Fla.
Darden hired Regency to handle surplus hardware from many of its approximately 1,320 Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Seasons 52 and Bahama Breeze chain locations nationwide, including the 651 Red Lobster units involved in the Darden Application for Service & Hospitality, or DASH, upgrade project. DASH resulted in the replacement of restaurant-level point-of-sale system and other components.
Lynn said the Darden work yielded, on average, 30 to 50 "assets," or items for disposal, per location. "Chain of custody" documentation and practices by Regency and its hauling contractors were an important consideration for Darden, as they are for any corporation wanting to limit its liability in dealing with equipment with potentially problematic disposal requirements.
Representatives of Darden, as is the case for all Regency clients, were able to log-on to a secure Web site to request equipment pickup by location. The foodservice company also relied on Regency's data clearing service that sees drives and storage devices in surplus equipment wiped clean three times, as per U.S. Department of Defense security standards.
Depending on the age and condition of the equipment involved, and the business model of the disposal firm it deals with, a restaurant company or other business may be eligible for discounts on such services. In rare situations, some companies make money from disposal programs – if the equipment being disposed of is relatively new and the firm in question struck a resale revenue sharing agreement with the disposal outfit.
More common, Lynn indicated, is a situation in which a revenue sharing agreement results in a discounting of normal rates for disposal, or "asset management," as Regency and some competitors like to call their business.
Referring to general pricing guidelines — not the specifics of the Darden agreement — Lynn said disposal services are now running about $30 per item, including freight charges. That is before offsets, if any, tied to equipment or commodity material resale.
Ican't speak to the service levels or prices charged by Regency's competitors, but I can share details of the service that company provides for the money, as explained by Lynn.
He said all incoming pieces are given scanner readable serial -number tags and audited to determine class of equipment and whether the components work or not. Pieces deemed unworthy of resale through multiple e-commerce channels, including Regency's own Web site and eBay, or the company's brick-and-mortar store, are relegated to the firm's in-house recycling center and shredder for dismantling down to the commodities material level.
In keeping with some governmental regulations and the disposal procedures of some client companies, Regency records the arrival, audit details and ultimate disposition of every piece it processes. Client firms using unique log-on information at Regency's Web site can view and download the reports and certificates of destruction for pieces handled in that manner.
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft recognized Regency Technologies for its success in exporting goods and creating jobs at home. Some unscrupulous equipment brokers have been cited in news reports in recent years for dumping unprocessed IT waste from the U.S. in developing nations, contributing to health and environmental problems. Lynn said Regency and some other firms believe a responsible policy is to sell only working PCs and peripherals and processed commodities to audited companies abroad.
"Responsible" is a term often used when discussing environmental stewardship. Whether they need the level of service provided by Regency Technologies or a competitor, operators need to formulate policies for dealing with surplus IT gear, as disposal doesn't always equate to disposable and knowing when that's true is big part of being responsible.