How HDD Industry and Seagate Are Reinventing Sustainability?

This article has been written by Hugo Bergmann, senior product marketing manager at Seagate Technology Holdings plc.

The storage industry has supplied billions of terabytes of HDD capacity over the years, with demand for HDDs and SSDs continuing to grow rapidly.

This results in significant potential for electronic waste, as millions of HDDs reach the end of their lifespan annually. In North America alone, about 22 million HDDs are decommissioned each year according the Cambridge University. A European Commission study estimates around half of all HDDs in the EU are destroyed when they are decommissioned, leading to the loss of valuable resources like gold, silver, copper, platinum, aluminum, and cobalt if not recycled. A sustainable solution based on the circular economy principle is urgently needed. However, electronic storage media pose a challenge due to the sensitive data they contain, which must be protected even at the end of a drive’s life to comply with data protection laws and IP regulations.

Secure Data Deletion
Shredding HDDs at the end of their use is not necessary because secure data deletion methods exist that reduce electronic waste. Shredding does not always ensure complete data security, as even tiny particles can retain data. Secure data erasure solutions, such as self-encrypting drives and Instant Secure Erase (ISE) functions, can digitally wipe HDDs clean, making them marketable again. For example, Seagate’s Secure Certified Erase function offers standardized and certified data deletion without physical destruction. New standards like IEEE 2883 provide guidelines for securely deleting data across various storage media. Companies can also work with certified service providers for data deletion if needed.

Extending Product Lifespan
Extending the lifespan of products is crucial for sustainability. Optimized design and intelligent production processes reduce CO2 emissions and resource consumption, setting the stage for a circular economy. Reprocessing HDDs saves more CO² compared to recycling¹. Product design should incorporate modular components, recyclable materials, easy disassembly, and refurbishment to establish a closed material loop, allowing for complete recycling with minimal energy use and avoiding down cycling. This requires close collaboration between manufacturers and suppliers.

Partnerships and Circular Economy Initiatives
Collaboration between storage manufacturers, industry partners, and supply chains is essential for reusing, repairing, or reselling parts and materials in HDD and SSD production. Industry associations like the Circular Drive Initiative (CDI) play a crucial role by working with companies in digital storage, sustainability, and blockchain to reduce electronic waste through secure reuse of storage hardware.

Seagate’s Measures
In FY23, Seagate extended the lifespan of circa 1,19 million HDDs and SSDs through refurbishment and reuse, preventing around 540 tons of electronic waste. Seagate and other CDI members published a white paper on circular economy research through data erasure, based on standards from CDI, NIST SP 800-88R1, ISO/IEC 27040, and IEEE 2883. Measures include retrieving used drives, implementing secure data erasure procedures, and reusing components and materials from old drives. Future measures involve offering CO² credits to customers to improve ecological balance and reduce electronic waste and data centers’ CO² footprints.

HAMR Technology for Improved Sustainability
The circular economy also addresses greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and the preservation of rare earth elements, financial savings, and more. Innovations like Seagate’s Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, which increases HDD storage capacity to 32TB and beyond, play a key role in reducing CO² emissions per terabyte. This technology allows companies to store more data on a HDD with similar power consumption, resulting in substantial cost savings and reduced energy costs for cooling and data center space requirements. Intelligent storage systems like Exos CORVAULT can save up to 50% on servers, networks, storage components, and energy costs, improving the overall TCO of a data center.

Improving Profitability
Adhering to Environmental, Social, and Governance (Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG)) rules as a regulatory framework for circular economy issues tends to lead to higher returns and greater business success. Reducing the use of rare earth elements in production and lowering energy consumption positively impacts both financial statements and environmental outcomes. It is essential to combine these factors intelligently. Being an environmental leader may temporarily put a company behind the competition, while being an environmental offender can deter key stakeholders, resulting in penalties and bans. Finding the right balance is essential, and company leadership must continuously align and analyze Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) investments and results. Transparency and sincerity are crucial, including a focus on supply chains. Seagate regularly reports on sustainability and circular economy progress in its Sustainable Datasphere Report.

The EU Commission demands that European data centers be carbon-neutral by 2030. Implementing a true circular system for storage media can contribute to sustainability, securing corporate profitability and reputation.

¹ Jin, H., Frost, K., Sousa, I., Ghaderi, H., Bevan, A., Zakotnik, M. and Handwerker, C., 2020. Life cycle assessment of emerging technologies on value recovery from Hard Drives. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 157, p.104781.