“We Just Made China Panic”: Inside America’s Rare Earths War Fueled by Revolutionary Hard Drive Recycling - Sustainability Times

“We Just Made China Panic”: Inside America’s Rare Earths War Fueled by Revolutionary Hard Drive Recycling - Sustainability Times

IN A NUTSHELL U.S.–China trade tensions have led to new tariffs, impacting global tech and defense industries reliant on rare earth elements. Microsoft and Western Digital’s initiative turns e-waste into a renewable source of rare earths using innovative, eco-friendly technology. The acid-free dissolution recycling method achieves high recovery rates while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 95%. The project enhances national security by creati…

Microsoft attacks landfills: priority to recycling hard drives It is often forgotten, but mechanical hard drives (HDDs) remain the backbone of the global digital infrastructure. Even though SSDs (Solid-State Drives) have invaded personal computers, data centres are still largely dependent on HDDs. And that's precisely where the pile hurts: when they are removed, these components are massively destroyed, crushed... and forgotten. Neodymium, prase…