Disposition of Computer Equipment

All Baylor-owned computers, printers, and related hardware items, including donated items and equipment purchased through grants, that are no longer on the hardware support list or no longer needed by a department must be returned to Baylor ITS for proper disposition. No Baylor-owned computers will be sold to Baylor employees.

Baylor ITS will determine if the equipment should be redeployed, donated, sold, or discarded. If any equipment is determined to have cash value, it will be sold to vendors of used equipment, non-profit agencies, non-profit institutions, or other third-party vendors who may offer it for public sale. Obsolete equipment may be donated to non-profit agencies and non-profit institutions based on a written request from the agency or institution.

Computer disposal requirements are more restrictive for businesses than for households. For example, under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), computers disposed of by a household are excluded from the definition of hazardous waste, while computers disposed of by a business may be regulated as hazardous waste. Some computers contain small amounts of toxic compounds including lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. Although individual computers from households may be placed in solid waste landfills, the EPA requires commercial establishments to determine whether they qualify as hazardous waste and if so, to have the computers sent to an approved hazardous waste disposal facility or to a recycler.

In order to comply with government regulations, state and federal, and Baylor policies, including FERPA, HIPAA, and GLB guidelines, Baylor ITS will erase all data from the computer drives to ensure that no data can be recovered. Baylor complies with DOD specifications for erasing data on storage media prior to the disposition of computer equipment. If the hard drive cannot be erased according to the DOD specifications, the hard drive will be physically destroyed.