Surplus Property

KU Surplus is responsible for handling the university recycling program. As such, they may have property in their possession that meets your needs or be aware of a department that has surplus property available that meets your needs. If property is located, please make sure all transfers are accomplished in accordance with all appropriate Property Accounting Procedures.

Electronic Waste (e-waste) Disposal

When a file is deleted, the operating system does not completely remove the file from the disk; rather, the file deletion removes only the reference to the file from the file system table. The file remains on the disk until a subsequent file is created over the original file. However, even after the file is overwritten, it may be possible to recover data from the original file. This presents a particular challenge when disposing of computers, electronic media (e.g., disks, tapes, etc.) and other devices that store information.

The only way to prevent unauthorized file access is to appropriately clean (e.g., sanitize) the hard drive or other media, or physically destroy it. The required procedures for performing a data wipe or over-write, or for physically destroying the hard drive or other media, are set forth in KU's Electronic Data Disposal Procedures.