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"This becomes important as the rare earth materials used in mechanical hard drives cannot be re-used, making hard drive shredding a non-sustainable practice."
by hilbert42 2y ago
"This becomes important as the rare earth materials used in mechanical hard drives cannot be re-used, making hard drive shredding a non-sustainable practice."
Why?
- DamonHD 2y agoYes, good question!
- Havoc 2y agoThat just sounds like a butchered sentence/meaning to me. I'd say the "cannot" refers more to "corporate policy won't allow anything other than shredding" rather than the rare earths have somehow turned sour and physically can't be re-used.
- mensetmanusman 2y agoThey can be reused, but the cost of separating is ridiculously high with existing energy costs compared to extraction from other mining sources.
- xhkkffbf 2y agoIt's pretty expensive to haul rocks out of the ground and separate the various elements from it. I find it hard to believe that it's more expensive to refine a pile of used hard drive platters and it is to extract the same thing from some mountain in the middle of nowhere.
- mensetmanusman 2y agoIt depends on what the elements are mixed with in high concentrations and which separation pathways need to be used.