The European Union has approved a project aimed at developing a methodology for the reuse of outdated and broken data center equipment. More details are below.
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The essence of the initiative
According to from Supermicro, half of the world's data centers update their equipment every 1 to 3 years. A large portion of decommissioned hardware components can be reused, such as reselling undamaged hard drives or sending printed circuit boards for recycling. This helps reduce costs for purchasing new equipment. However, according to the same Supermicro report, about 12% of data centers do not do this.
The new European project CEDaCI aims to assist companies in using resources more effectively, which in January 2019. Its main goal is to build a . This includes the reuse of materials themselves. are much cheaper to obtain from recycled raw materials, which will be possible and will happen.
The CEDaCI organizers are researchers from London South Bank University, and the project will be funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
What the experts will do
In CEDaCI four countries: the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and Germany. They house 70% of all European data centers.
The working group includes specialists in manufacturing, recycling, and repairing equipment, as well as cloud providers. By 2021, they will develop and present two new technologies that will help data center operators effectively utilize their existing hardware. Additionally, participant organizations will compile a list of recommendations for equipment manufacturers to facilitate recycling or repair.
In CEDaCI, they aim to increase the volume of reusable components from 65% to 75%, and the volume of raw materials for equipment recycling from 10% to 19%.
Opinions
According to According to one of the project leaders, Deborah Andrews, this initiative will not only help reduce harmful waste but also lower the costs of producing new hardware components. Deborah's opinion Google's Director of Sustainability, Kate Brandt, states that circular economy principles could help data centers save approximately $4.5 trillion over the next decade.
However, this approach also has . According to a 2017 study, it will lead to reduced costs of finished products and increased demand for them, which in turn will affect the growth of production from primary raw materials. There is currently no unified solution to this problem (how to break out of the cycle).
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Another challenge related to forming a circular economy is the lack of a ready-made implementation plan. According to former European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potočnik, many companies are willing to reuse materials and equipment but do not know where to start.
Large-scale initiatives from international organizations and major corporations, whose experience small data centers can adopt, may solve this problem. In 2016, Google already implement zero-waste production in data centers in Taiwan and Singapore. Representatives of the IT giant claim that in these data centers, most of the 'used' equipment can be repaired or resold to other companies.
Similar initiatives
Initiatives for electronics reuse are not just happening in Europe. For example, in Japan, since the early 2000s, a law encouraging equipment manufacturers to reuse individual components and materials. As a result of years of work, in Japan, about a quarter of discarded electronics .
Non-profit organizations are also advancing the circular economy. In the Netherlands, since the late 1990s, Wecycle has been collecting electronics. According to from 2016, the organization's activities reduce the electricity consumption of equipment manufacturers by 17% annually.
Experts from the World Economic Forum (WEF) , that the topic of hardware reuse will be one of the main themes in 2019. It is expected that initiatives like CEDaCI will attract a large number of major IT companies. In the future, they will be able to draw the attention of data center operators worldwide to the opportunity to resell hardware and save money.
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Source: habr.com
