Western Digital partners with Microsoft and others to launch a rare earth recycling program

American hard drive manufacturer Western Digital announced a cross-industry pilot program in collaboration with Microsoft, Critical Materials Recycling, and PedalPoint Recycling to efficiently recover rare earth elements such as neodymium, tantalum, and dysprosium from discarded hard drives in the United States. The program also aims to recover metals like gold, copper, aluminum, and steel, potentially establishing a milestone for a self-sufficient rare earth recycling industry in the U.S. HDDs, as the storage core of cloud data centers, rely on various rare earth elements for their precise magnetic design. However, traditional dismantling methods struggle to effectively recover rare earth materials, leading to significant resource loss, with recovery rates even below 10%. According to data released by Western Digital, this program has successfully processed over 50,000 pounds of discarded HDDs and surrounding materials, achieving approximately 90% rare earth recovery rate and 80% total raw material reuse through acid-free dissolution recovery technology and a new sorting system, significantly reducing carbon emissions and environmental burden. Microsoft revealed that all materials used in this initiative come from its data centers in the United States. Microsoft Vice President Chuck Graham stated that this collaboration demonstrates that HDD products still hold high economic and sustainable value even after their lifecycle ends, and establishing a circular supply chain is one of the long-term goals