Trimble is teaming with Cobalt, an IT asset disposition company, to provide Trimble’s fleet mobility customers with the ability to dispose of older, onboard equipment in an environmentally-friendly way.

This will allow Trimble customers who upgrade to new devices in 2019 and 2020 to ship their uninstalled Trimble equipment back to Cobalt free of charge. Cobalt will then safely and securely disposal of the hardware, recycling any components when possible.

“The ELD mandate and the sunset of 3G CDMA wireless networks mean that our customers and fleets throughout the industry are upgrading devices in their trucks,” said Rick Ochsendorf, general manager for Trimble’s Transportation Mobility Division. “Part of our mission is to make transportation greener and more efficient. Not only do our latest solutions allow customers to achieve this but we are committed to helping them remove older Trimble equipment in a way that benefits the environment as well.”

According to the EPA’s most recent statistics, the United States generated an annual total of 3.09 million tons of obsolete electronic products. Working with Cobalt, Trimble customers can do their part to reduce this figure and to eliminate the time and challenge of disposing these products themselves.

“We are excited and proud to work with Trimble on this important initiative,” said Joey Fojtik, CEO of Cobalt. “We recognize the problem of electronic waste and look forward to assisting Trimble and its fleet customers in their sustainability efforts.”