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Secure data destruction methods & NCSC-approved processes

It is important to properly erase all sensitive data when you dispose of redundant IT assets. We’re here to help, and will advise you on the most appropriate method for your needs.

Book a FREE collection

Free collections when you recycle at least 10 laptops, PCs & servers (any combination). It’s also free to recycle almost all waste IT with us.

Your data is in safe hands

Your data security is our highest priority across all of our operations. We manage your data-bearing devices with exceptional care and full compliance. Everything we do is GDPR & WEEE regulations compliant, certificated and carbon negative. This page documents our:

Speed of service.
Security, insurance and accreditation.
What certificates are provided?
Secure data deletion methods.
The circular economy.

Speed of service

It’s important that your data is collected promptly and properly erased as soon as possible thereafter to minimise risk. We’re an agile SME, and can usually collect any volume of IT assets from anywhere in the UK within a few days.

Security, insurance and accreditation

All of our staff are vetted and DBS checked, we are fully insured, GDPR and WEEE regulations compliant. We’re registered with the ICO (Register of data protection: ZB782110), and we’re also members of professional trade associations such as TechUK and the Federation of Small Businesses.

We are registered with the Environment Agency with Waste Carriers Registration: CBDU563597; S1 – Storing waste in secure containers: WEX425489; S2 – Storing waste in a secure place: WEX425489 and T11 – Repairing or refurbishing waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): EXP/CP3147YL.

What certificates are provided?

Duty of care: Waste Transfer Note

We produce a Duty of care: Waste Transfer Note when we collect your assets. Our driver will ask you to sign a form on a mobile device, and we’ll send you a signed copy by email straight away. We then take your equipment back to our secure facility with our tracked vehicles and vetted staff.

Certificates of Destruction

When we have processed the equipment and destroyed all of the data you’ll get a Certificate of Destruction, which we send by email. This takes up to 72 hours but is often complete within 48 hours. We offer two service levels for data destruction: standard or enhanced.

Standard is free of charge and provides a general certificate. Our enhanced service (£5/disk ex-VAT) provides a full end-to-end asset list, and individual wiping reports for each drive (if cryptographically erased) — see below for info on how we destroy data.

Carbon Offset Certificate

When the process is complete, we’ll generate and email a Carbon Offset Certificate. Everything we do is carbon-negative — we track the carbon emissions across our operation from transport to processing, and we offset double the amount of carbon we emit via UK native species tree planting. We provide evidence to our customers for each job with a certificate which details the carbon emitted and offset during transport/data sanitisation.

Examples of our certificates

Secure data deletion methods

We cryptographically erase all drives/media we collect, with a clear status achieved via the NIST 800-88 R2 standard. This applies to all of our service levels, whether standard or enhanced. This approach leaves a working device where the data is totally and irrecoverably destroyed, which means that device can go on to have a second life in the circular economy.

Where software-based erasure is not possible, we use a combination of degaussing and shredding to permanently destroy data. Every drive we collect undergoes data destruction: USB drives, hard drives, SSDs, and removable media such as CDs, tape drives and even floppy disks. In these cases the assets are not reusable, so we send them for materials recovery.

Each of these data deletion methods has its merits depending on your priorities for security and sustainability.

Data Wiping

Data wiping is the preferred, and eco-friendly method for securely erasing sensitive information. We overwrite the drives with cryptographically secure erasure to the NIST 800-88 R2 standard.

Once complete, the original data can never be recovered or accessed by others, but the device can be used again.

Degaussing

Degaussing is a process that destroys data on devices such as hard drives, by eliminating the magnetic field.

While highly effective at destroying data, it renders the device unusable and is less environmentally friendly compared to data wiping.

IT Asset shredding

Shredding physically destroys IT assets by breaking electronic devices into fragments no larger than 6 mm.

This process completely destroys the hard drive’s platters, mechanisms, and electronic components, ensuring that all data is irretrievable.

Our data destruction services

The Circular Economy

Circularity is a core tenet of why we exist. We aim to reuse all equipment by giving it a second life (i.e. as part of the circular economy rather than diverting waste to materials recovery or landfill). Once we have completed the data destruction process, everything goes through in-depth testing so we can assess it for re-deployment either as a whole unit, or in its component parts.

If we cannot get items back into circulation, then we break items down for their material constituent parts and ensure that all processed material remains in the UK (including plastics). We have carefully selected our material recycling partners to minimise the environmental impact for processing redundant materials back into a usable form.

Leaders and partners in the UK’s circular economy

We are actively engaging with key public and private sector entities to help support a better future for the environment, and in e-waste generally. We’re active members of The All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group, and we work in partnership with Back Market to reduce the impact of laptop obsolescence. We are also actively involved with a number of government initiatives (with more details to be announced in 2026).

Latest resources on the Circular Economy