Turtle Wings

Turtle Wings is committed to making the world a better place by reusing and recycling electronics. The founder, Elizabeth, has had a life long interest in reuse and recycling of all materials, values that remain at the core of our business even as we have expanded into areas such as hard drive disposal and data destruction. She tells the following with a smile. “My parents never threw out anything because they both grew up in pre-war (WWII) households without a lot of money. So, our family saved everything for some future use. We had a special bag for pieces of string that we saved. In our house, even Santa reused and recycled. My sister and I had to carefully unwrap our Christmas gifts, without tearing the paper, so Santa could reuse the same wrapping paper year after year.” “I remember going to a friend’s house when I was about 10 and seeing her mother use a brand new piece of shiny, unwrinkled tinfoil. I was amazed. I couldn’t wait to go home and tell my mother that it was possible to buy new tinfoil and that everything didn’t have to taste slightly like last year’s turkey! Needless to say, my mother was not amused. Anyway, old habits die hard and reuse and recycling became part of who I am. To this day, I rarely throw out something that can be reused.” “In 2002, when I was finally ready to replace my old home computer from the early 1990′s, I looked for the most globally beneficial way to get rid of it. I called several charities and schools who clearly were not interested in my obsolete equipment. I also contacted several hauling companies but they told me they were just going to take it to the local landfill. Though that is legal in the State of Maryland, it wasn’t something that I felt comfortable doing. Just because you can throw something out, doesn’t mean you should. At that moment, my idea for a national company which would dispose of electronics in a globally responsible manner was born.”

• We pick up and recycle computer and electronic equipment with a focus on Maryland; Northern Virginia; and Washington D.C.

• We also offer nationwide data destruction and electronics recycling options for larger quantities including a customer shipment offering.

• We are a certified recycler which authorizes us to handle electronics recycling for government agencies and contractors nationwide.

• We provide the highest levels of customer service and data security. Our recycling is done domestically in full compliance with all local, state and federal regulations.

Our Process

Turtle Wings is an R2 and ISO 14001 certified company. Our process for e-waste is certified by an outside third party annually. Turtle Wings has a no e-waste landfill initiative and is determined to recycle all parts of the electronic equipment received. Our recycling and dismantling facilities are all in the U.S. and comply with all applicable, local, state and federal regulations. When items come into our recycling facility, they immediately go through an inspection process. If the items are thought to have value and re-sale potential, they are then sent to our staging and testing area of our recycling facility. If not they are sent to the dismantle line for disassembly.

For working equipment, our technicians complete basic tests and evaluations. If the items are complete and pass the testing, they are then put through more advanced tests such as having the hard drives tested, wiped down to a C: prompt and possibly formatted. All of our employees undergo a background check, sign a confidentiality agreement and are thoroughly trained in security procedures.

The next steps for the units that are deemed not for sale or non-working are to be manually dismantled for parts. When the items are dismantled, they are segregated into various Gaylord boxes where like materials are kept together. These raw materials could consist of items such as steel, copper, aluminum, glass, plastic, circuit boards, memory chips and power supplies. These raw materials are then sent to thoroughly vetted re-processors who use them in other manufacturing processes. Monitors are sent domestically for glass-to-glass recycling. Turtle Wings requires that raw materials recovered be used in the most environmentally friendly way in keeping with our mission of being globally responsible.

We are committed to preserving and protecting the global environment and hold all of our downstream re-processors to the same high standards. We perform annual audits and site visits to downstream vendors as well as requiring complete paperwork audit trails and certifications. Turtle Wings has all the electronic recycling processes, certifications and credentials to effectively recycle computers.

ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY

Turtle Wings, Inc. is committed to following the R2 Practices and to maintain conformance to the requirements of our Environmental, Health and Safety Policy. We are equally committed to meet or exceed our customer requirements, to continually improve our processes, to prevent pollution and work place injuries and ill health, and to maintain compliance with relevant environmental; Occupational Health and Safety; and data security legislation and regulations. The goal of Turtle Wings, Inc.’s operation is to have a positive impact on the environment through responsible recycling practices that includes the conservation of metals, plastic and other non-renewable resources. Consistent with these core operations, it is Turtle Wings, Inc.’s overall goal to accomplish its business objectives while meeting and exceeding the environmental, health, safety and data security expectations of our management, employees, customers, suppliers and regulators.We will continually improve our systems while striving to minimize adverse impacts on the environment and provide data security by managing used and end-of-life electronic equipment, components and materials –with respect to both on-site activities and the selection of downstream vendors – using a “reuse, recover, dispose” hierarchy of responsible management strategies.

To achieve the above statement of this EH&S and other objectives, Turtle Wings, Inc. is committed to:

• Ensuring that these policies are appropriate to our operations and the potential environmental impacts and health and safety risks;
• Complying with all relevant EH&S legal requirements, customer and product requirements, industry guidelines and any other EH&S commitments made by Turtle Wings, Inc.;
• Striving for continual improvement;
• Preventing work place injuries and ill health;
• Providing the framework for establishing EH&S and data security goals;
• Increasing customer satisfaction;
• Preventing of pollution;
• Providing data security through data destruction;
• Ensuring that our system and policies are communicated, understood and implemented by all persons working for or on behalf of Turtle Wings, Inc.;
• Ensuring that this EH&S policy is reviewed and amended as necessary for continued suitability; and
• Making the policy available to the public.

ELECTRONICS RECYCLING SERVICES

Turtle Wings provides electronics recycling services. We offer pick-up at your location within DC, Maryland or Virginia for small to mid-sized companies. We accept mailed-in items or items delivered to our Capitol Heights location. We offer nationwide services for large corporations and government agencies.We recycle keyboards, laptops, printers, monitors, and any other type of electronic or metal device. Computer equipment disposal and PC recycling are our specialties. We accept a wide range of batteries and other equipment found in data centers and offices.

If you are concerned about maintaining an audit trail, we can record serial numbers prior to recycling. We are an approved electronics recycler, and can document all stages of the recycling process to provide full compliance of our downstream vendors. We are the premier firm for electronics recycling in Maryland, Virginia and DC. There are already many states that ban the practice of throwing electronics into landfills and we hope more follow suit. Recycling electronics with a certified electronics recycler like Turtle Wings is an easy way to help the environment.

Upon completion of the project we can provide a Certificate of Recycling and Good Citizenship, allowing you to demonstrate to your customers and employees that your business is ecologically responsible and working for the health of the planet.Last year, the U.S. electronics recycling industry processed 3 million to 4 million tons of used electronic equipment. Over seventy (70) percent of the equipment collected is manufactured into specification-grade commodities — including lead, aluminum, copper, circuit boards, scrap steel, glass and plastics. These valuable commodities are then sold to manufacturers in the U.S. and globally as raw material feedstock for new products. Electronics recyclers repair, refurbish and resell functioning electronics equipment as used products into domestic and international markets. Companies also provide a number of logistical services, like collection, storage and transportation, as well as scrubbing hard drives of sensitive, personal and commercial data.

DATA DESTRUCTION

Turtle Wings offers complete data destruction services, including hard drive degaussing and shredding, tape shredding, and destruction of CDs, back-up tapes and other memory devices. Our mobile shredders are capable of destroying your data on-site at your location while you watch. Data destruction in excess of mandatory legal guidelines is guaranteed by our standardized policies, procedures and training. We are routinely cleared for destruction of classified materials and have a fleet of NSA-approved degaussers and shredders across the country. We offer shred sizes as small as 10 mm and complete asset tracking and verification with assured compliance.Our mobile data destruction vehicles with high speed shredders are located nationwide and can reach any location immediately. All residual particles are recycled in full compliance with all local, state and federal regulations. See our Data Killers site: www.datakillers.com

We are certified by the Defense Logistics Information Service to store and transport military critical technical information. Our on-site hard drive destruction services and cleared personnel provide the highest level of security. We provide complete hard drive physical destruction which, in conjunction with our on-site degaussing service, can be utilized for classified data or highly sensitive business data which cannot leave a cleared facility or a specific business location.Our data destruction process is in full compliance with all physical destruction criteria as set forth by various laws and regulations, including but not limited to: DoD regulations; HIPAA; Sarbanes-Oxley Act; Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act; FACTA Disposal Rule; Bank Secrecy Act; Patriot Act of 2002; Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act; US Safe Harbor Provisions; FDA Security Regulations; PCI Data Security Standard; Various state laws. We destroy hard drives and tapes to NSA and NIST standards.Our nationally recognized Certificate of Destruction will suffice for all compliance purposes. For compliance purposes, we can provide a detailed audit trail of all destroyed media including serial numbers, manufacturers and model numbers. We can match serial numbers to a pre-supplied list and will only shred after serial number verification has been performed by our trained technicians. Serial numbers will be incorporated into the Certificate of Destruction as proof of compliance.