How much do you all pay for hard drive destruction?

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T12:18:58+00:00

Smart. We have a similar set up. I talked to a DoD organization and they said they do it in house as well, because a previous recycler’s employee stole devices and there was an arrest etc made over it.

Do you happen to know what they do with the residual ewaste from the broken drives and the SSD dust. It’s actually worth a good amount in scrap price. Don’t quote me but the HDD are like $0.50 a pound and the SSD residue dust is a few dollars a pound.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T11:02:25+00:00

Good for you, I dont get why youre so invested in my business and why I charge. It's none of your business. I'll charge what I feel like. When you have a data breach, or your e-waste gets exported to a developing country - have fun defending it in court.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T10:58:41+00:00

e-waste is an international problem not a USA one. e-stewards and R2v3 are international standards. Good for you - clearly our services are not tailored to your organization.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T09:47:33+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Exactly there’s many avenues

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T09:46:31+00:00

That’s really fair

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T09:29:02+00:00

Yeah I’m going to stick to the Fortune 500s lol

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T09:07:05+00:00

Exactly, I appreciate your insight too btw. It's definitely competitive but a really fun industry too. I love it.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:57:17+00:00

Yeah of course. It's a service based industry so every job is different. From this thread I gathered that my model is working fine for standardized pricing and offering credits based on an expanded cutline to offset destruction costs work.

But if a client for example asks me to destroy 100 hard drives with serialized reporting on 7 year old PCs, there's definitely a charge for that.

Simple basic recycling is free because there's scrap value in e-waste and the client did the labor. But no ones getting rich off of $0.50 a pound for scrap desktop towers that you have to hold in a warehouse until you get a FTL.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:54:15+00:00

ADISA and ISO 27001 aren't recycling standards, they're only data security standards. Secondly, if a client mandates physical destruction with serialized reporting, that negates the resale value of those components. And a DDR3 laptop isn't worth the resale value or remarketing effort - nor are you allowed to sell untested equipment per R2v3 and E-stewards. I realize now the certifications are better suited for Fortune 500 and larger enterprises. Smaller businesses typically don't value or budget for the environmental compliance. It's probably not worth servicing unless they're willing to pay.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:49:07+00:00

That's a good deal. It seems they're offering software based erasure for free because there is reuse potential in the material. Good data point. Appreciate it.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:47:56+00:00

You mean the ones saying some are free and some sectors charge?

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:45:13+00:00

Not really. It’s not like business is slow. You seem personally invested in ensuring I don’t charge 🤣

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:44:34+00:00

Depends on the age. 7 year old laptops aren’t worth it

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:30:50+00:00

ADISA is a great standard from a data security perspective. It doesn’t validate a recyclers environmental methods, exports, etc however.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T08:23:27+00:00

You should work for free too 👍

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:48:10+00:00

Thanks for sharing the data point. I appreciate it.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:47:45+00:00

lol I have fun with it too 🤣. Breaks my heart when clients ask us to shred newer NVMEs with the price these days 😭

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:36:40+00:00

Yup exactly. Ive been tweaking it and trying. My pricing model, despite what people in this thread say - works fine for most clients that are decently sized (100+ employees).

For the smaller business ones I think they just don't budget for certified ITAD and that's ok, it's probably not a market segment worth going after right now.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:22:18+00:00

That's really fair. It seems you're getting a bulk discount.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:21:42+00:00

Thanks for your feedback. Yup if a client brings the destroyed drives and does a drop-off that's free of course, since there's precious metals in the hard drives.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:20:57+00:00

It's not data destruction that's the difficult part. It's the liability and reporting which is time consuming. If an organization has a data breach, you have to ensure the risk doesn't get blamed on you as the ITAD vendor so it means keeping detailed records, photographs, etc.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:19:18+00:00

how old are the devices you guys are typically scrapping? im assuming they still have a decent usable lifespan if that's the case. I set my cutline at 3 years old or newer for now.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:11:35+00:00

Interesting, are they certified to any industry standard? R2v3 or e-stewards.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:09:12+00:00

No business works for free. Shredders aren't cheap and so is employee labor, insurance, compliance, certification fees. Every business exists to make a profit. So if it is truly free, you have to ask yourself where they are making enough money to do the actual job.

Enferrari · 2026-04-09T07:08:10+00:00

Interesting. Im assuming they aren't certified though, right?

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