Planned obsolescence is something especially widespread in the computer segment. We just have to see that new processors and graphics cards are released every year that are totally unnecessary. It is especially serious what happens in the big technology companies, which every few years change their systems and destroy hard drives in perfect condition.
When a large technology company upgrades its workers’ computers or its servers, it always destroys the old systems. They especially physically destroy their hard drives with industrial shredders for fear of data leakage. Many experts cry out against this practice, since they could erase the data in a safe way and that the hard disks, in perfect condition, can continue to be used.
Destroying hard drives for no reason
The prestigious Financial Time media has published a report on the procedures of the big technology companies. Typically, servers and hard drives are shredded every few years , when they are deemed obsolete. These systems are perfectly functional, being able to clean and sell without major problems.
Tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, among others, upgrade storage hardware every four to five years. They are not the only ones, banks, police services or government agencies, among others, carry out these practices.
Millions of storage devices considered obsolete are destroyed annually. A leak of sensitive data, no matter how small, can have huge legal consequences. To avoid problems, they simply destroy the equipment.
In the United States , Morgan Stanley was recently fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for auctioning off thousands of hard drives before erasing them. It was fined 35 million dollars for the breach of customer data.
The destruction of this functional hardware is a real environmental problem. These electronic waste are difficult to deal with, moreover, they are functional components.
The change on the part of the companies is made because the new hardware is much more energy efficient. But, this is apparently, since most of the carbon emissions come from manufacturing, not operation. A few weeks ago it was already published that the manufacture of SSDs generates twice as many emissions as HDDs.
A problem of origin, of manufacture
We must say that about 70% of the shredded hardware is recovered and recycled, which is quite a lot. The biggest problem is in the generation of carbon and energy used to manufacture the components. The longer the time of use, the more the emission factor is diluted.
Carrying out a destruction of these components has an additional negative thing. All computer components require rare earths for their manufacture. The problem is that these rare earths are lost in the process, they are not recoverable and have to be mined again. To extract them, polluting chemical products and fuels, among others, are needed. Additionally, some of these materials are obtained in conflict zones.
It should be noted that the belief that destruction is the only way to guarantee security. Experts say that level of destruction is not necessary. They indicate that it is difficult for data to be stolen if proper cleaning is done.
Shredded systems can continue to be used for years or decades without issue. Furthermore, Google and Microsoft have indicated that they have started using refurbished servers. They are few, but let’s see if this practice increases and becomes standardized.