Delete, Don’t Destroy: Tackling the Challenge of Hard Drive Waste

According to the United Nations, around 53.6 million tons of e-waste is produced every year worldwide. However, 83% of this e-waste is not being collected and recycled. With increasing volumes of technology hardware being produced and disposed, we face what the United Nations have referred to as a “tsunami of e-waste”, which puts our planet at serious risk.

Let’s put this in the context of data storage devices. Our world is creating data more rapidly than ever before. According to research by IDC, by 2026, 221 ZB of data will be generated worldwide, further accelerating the demand for hard disk drives. As data volumes continue to grow, creating more products also introduces the potential for more items entering the waste stream. A European Commission study estimates around half of all hard drives in the EU are destroyed when they are decommissioned, producing a huge amount of waste. There is now an urgent need to create a more sustainable datasphere.

At the end of a drive’s life, the data obviously needs to be protected, and remains subject to global data privacy laws, intellectual property regulations, and data breach regulations, which all come with severe financial and brand penalties for data breaches. Many believe the only solution is to destroy old, discarded hard drives through shredding to make sensitive or confidential information totally irretrievable, helping companies save money on storage, as well as adhere to these privacy laws and protect their data or intellectual property.

While it is of course critical to avoid data leaks and security breaches at all costs, this should not preclude safe data deletion to help reduce e-waste. Disposal and shredding are not the only answer and are certainly not the most sustainable. This practice can create huge amounts of e-waste and in addition unnecessarily throw away rare metals. Without recycling, it’s estimated that £370 million is lost annually in valuable raw non-renewable resources via e-waste, including gold, silver, copper, platinum, aluminium, and cobalt.

According to industry experts, including Felice Alfieri from the European Commission who produced a policy report on making sustainability in technology hardware and data centres, there is no need to shred from a data security perspective, and advocates for data deletion over device destruction.

The reality is there is innovation that can prevent more e-waste from ending up in a landfill. While hard drives will eventually be retired, there is the real possibility to repurpose, reuse and recycle the drives before it enters the landfill.

Here are five things the data storage industry can do to play its part in tackling the e-waste challenge and reducing environmental impact.

Offer more secure solutions: Wiping software exists to securely delete information from hard drives that cannot be accessed again. Self-encrypting drives and Instant Secure Erase (ISE) capabilities are available, and hard drives can be digitally wiped through data sanitisation for redeployment into the market. For example, Seagate Secure Certified Erase feature provides standardised and certified data-erasure capabilities, which does not include physically destroying the drive, to prevent negative data-loss consequences.

Extend product life: Invest in enhancing the design and production process of hard drives from start to finish to reduce carbon emissions and use less of the earth’s precious, finite resources. Circular

design will take into consideration key factors such as modular components, using materials that are recyclable, and that can easily be taken apart and refurbished. Extending the life of the drive obviously offers significant financial benefits for buyers too.

Work in partnership: Collaborate with industry partners and suppliers to plan for the reuse, repair and resale of parts and materials along the production line. Also draw on the expertise and networks of industry bodies such as the Circular Drive Initiative (CDI), of which Seagate is a founding member. CDI works in partnership with global leaders in digital storage, sustainability, and blockchain to focus on reducing e-waste by enabling the secure reuse of storage hardware.

Be more energy efficient: Apply more sustainable measures throughout the manufacturing process of hard drives, such as water cooling, using renewable energy to power manufacturing sites, and recycling wherever possible. Aligning with ISO standards in implementing energy management systems will help create a common and sustainable energy management program across all manufacturing sites.

Introduce circular economy initiatives: It is time to stop scrapping hard drives and instead use circular economy initiatives that collect drives and reuse components. Seagate has itself extended the life of over one million hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD) during FY22 through refurbishment and redeployment, preventing over 540 metric tons of e-waste from going to landfill. We have further diverted 87% of non-hazardous e-waste from landfill and recycled 82% of hazardous waste generated.

Beyond these measures is the longer-term need to build sustainable innovation into R&D investment. For example, mass capacity enabled by Seagate’s industry-leading HAMR (heat assisted magnetic recording) technology will greatly reduce CO2 emissions per Terabyte. The manufacturing process and lifetime power consumption of a 2 Terabyte drive have roughly the same carbon footprint as a 20 Terabyte drive, delivering a more sustainable and cost-effective data journey for customers.

Circularity and repurposing data drives will preserve precious finite resources and extend the life of the product or even parts of it. As an industry, we must recognise our responsibility to address the environmental impacts of data storage and enable a more sustainable datasphere. Working closely alongside customers, suppliers, partners, and employees, it is now time to identify and implement substantial improvements that will serve our industry and ultimately help protect the planet.