Opportunities for recovering critical materials from hard disk drives identified
Hard disk drives contain a significant number of critical and strategic raw materials (CRMs and SRMs). As part of its recycling programme, the Dutch Materials Observatory (NMO) conducted research into the potential of hard disk drives in 2024. This research analyses the current recycling of CRMs in the Dutch value chain. It offers concrete recommendations for setting up more recycling in the value chain through technological and policy recommendations.
The study was conducted through literature research and interviews with Mirec, Stichting Open, UNITAR and the foreign company’s Recupel and Ecologic. The results of this study can be found in the NMO report: ‘Potential of permanent magnet recovery from Dutch waste: the case of Hard Disk Drives’.
Obstacles for reuse
The NMO study shows that hard disk drives mainly contain the critical materials neodymium and dysprosium. The value of all critical materials in discarded hard disk drives is estimated at 1.7 million euros.
The actual volume of neodymium and dysprosium to be recovered is limited compared to the annual Dutch consumption. The reuse of hard disk drives could cover 1.7% of neodymium use and 0.8% of dysprosium use in the Netherlands. As these CRMs are not currently being recovered at all, this would be an improvement. Setting up recycling of neodymium and dysprosium from hard disk drives would require overcoming the following obstacles:
- Dutch e-waste collection is below the target in the European Union and the performance of neighbouring countries.
- From a data deletion perspective, shredding (cutting into small pieces or chopping into small chunks) is cheaper than careful reuse.
- The neodymium recycling industry is still in its early stages.
See the full results of this study in the report: ‘Potential of permanent magnet recovery from Dutch waste: the case of Hard Disk Drives’.