Western Digital (WDC, Financial) has announced a pioneering cross-industry initiative in the U.S., in collaboration with Microsoft, Critical Materials Recycling, and PedalPoint Recycling. The project focuses on efficiently recycling rare earth elements such as neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), and dysprosium (Dy) from discarded hard disk drives (HDDs), as well as recovering gold, copper, aluminum, and steel.
HDDs, vital for cloud data centers, require precise magnetic designs dependent on various rare earth elements. Traditional dismantling methods have proven inefficient, resulting in a resource recovery rate of less than 10%. The new initiative has processed over 50,000 pounds of scrap HDDs and related materials using acid-free dissolution recovery technology and innovative sorting systems. This has achieved an approximately 90% rare earth recovery rate and an 80% reuse rate of raw material mass, significantly reducing carbon emissions and environmental impact.
All materials for this project were sourced from Microsoft's data centers in the U.S. According to Microsoft's Vice President, Chuck Graham, this collaboration underscores that HDDs retain significant economic and sustainable value at the end of their lifecycle. Establishing a circular supply chain remains a long-term goal.
