This article was recently featured on the Bradford Means Business website. Detailing Ucan Secure IT’s impressive growth and future plans within the electronic waste sector.
Ucan Secure IT had humble beginnings in a garage in Harehills, Leeds, 15 years ago and now has three depots in Bradford and recycles e-waste nationwide, and most recently opened a plant in the Low Moor area, in April 2023.
This means Ucan Secure IT now has more than 30,000 square feet of recycling space in the city of Bradford, with two other plants at Wyke and Buttershaw.
Gareth Williams, Business Development Manager at Ucan, joined the company after he was made redundant from his job in the print industry during lockdown.
He said: “There’s not that many that specialise in electric waste, people just take their stuff to the tip. They will be the fossils of the future, you’ll be digging up an old Mac underground. We’re modern-day miners really.”
Mr Williams focused on sustainability in his previous job and he was interested in bringing this to Ucan, as well as working in his hometown of Bradford. His role is to educate households and big businesses about WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling).
The boom in the industry has come about from a revolution in the way we work, forced upon the country and world initially by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Williams said: “We’ve massively grown since lockdown, people work at home more, there is masses and masses of office spaces.”
“The hazardous waste has got to go somewhere.”
An important part of the process is securely dealing with data on the devices the firm is presented with, as some are repurposed or reused. This includes wiping all data and shredding hard drives for extra security.
But the majority of the items they receive have reached their end of life and the precious materials in the products can be recycled.
The increase in demand has led the business to launch a dedicated off-shoot – Ucan Secure IT – which will focus on e-waste.
Rob Seal, CEO of the company, said: “New regulations on POPS (persistent organic pollutants) means that a significant amount of WEEE is now classed as hazardous.
“Ucan Recycling has invested heavily to ensure that the increased demand of e-waste is managed properly and the data within the tech disposed of safely.
“We are experiencing fast growth and are excited to announce our new arm of the business Ucan Secure IT, which will specialise in data destruction and computer recycling.’
It is a different world from the one Mr. Seal first embarked upon, collecting cans in his garage and taking them to be recycled until he was able to fund recycling them himself.
Ucan now employs 30 staff members, across multiple teams including collection, IT, and marketing.
Mr Williams will be running a new pilot scheme that will allow residents across West Yorkshire to drop off old unwanted tech items free of charge so they can be recycled properly.
For more information, please contact info@ucansecureit.com or call us on 0113 2424421.