▲ 575 ▼ Data centers emitting more CO2 than thought: study (japantoday.com) submitted 4 months ago by sanitation@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world 56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 91 points 4 months ago (18 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source hideshow 18 child comments replies: [–] dan@upvote.au 20 points 4 months ago* (6 children) They do an upgrade, ever server/switch/router etc ends up in the dumpster How many customers do this? At least here in the Bay Area, hard drives and SSDs get destroyed, but a lot of the other equipment goes to e-waste recyclers who end up refurbishing it and selling it on marketplaces like eBay. A lot of homelabbers get their equipment from eBay, and the source of that equipment is almost always second-hand data center equipment. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago (5 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 5 child comments replies: [–] dan@upvote.au 12 points 4 months ago* (4 children) And I would be interested on how they are referbing the equipment and selling for a profit My understanding is that an e-waste recycling company is contracted to take all the old equipment. The original company can say they've recycled it, record it as such, and doesn't care what's done with the equipment after that - whether that be reselling it, recycling it, whatever. The e-waste company is the one that handles finding the useful stuff and refurbishing it. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children) The big issue is that there's no risk and hardly any cost to the landfill, while there's a bit of work and thinking required for reuse, with not much more benefit than that it's doing the right thing. And you don't get to become a capitalist overlord for doing the right thing. It's high time that tax codes and regulation make dumping e-waste and unsorted trash extremely expensive. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent [–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 13 points 4 months ago (6 children) or they have devalued to zero so they cannot be sold for tax purposes. Well that's just stupid. In my country, if you sell property that's been depreciated to zero (or lower than its sale price in general), you're just supposed to record it as profit. Of course when you've depreciated something to zero and it's not something like a car where it's registered with the government, you could just give it away to employees or friends. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (2 children) That seems like the perfect department slush fund. Free cookies every friday! Bigger christmas party! permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago someone had to push it and start recycling new wire to keep the pizzas flowing ffs, someone always has to ruin a good thing. permalink fedilink source parent [–] vext01@feddit.uk 3 points 4 months ago (1 child) The problem is, few employees or friends will want an enterprise grade server screaming in their house. The waste described above makes me sad. Surely parts of servers can be recycled. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment load more comments (1 reply) [–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 4 months ago (1 child) Even if they are perfectly good Could that perhaps be an issue of stupid licensing? With, smart licensing, or whatever, if the license is non-transferable, then the hardware is basically an expensive paper weight. I've heard Cisco used to give out Meraki devices for free on some events, because without a license they were totally useless. Until someone figured out how to run OpenWRT on them. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment load more comments (1 reply) [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (1 child) The amount of waste out there like this is tragic. I could understand destroying hard drives, but the rest of the hardware? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment load more comments (1 reply)
[–] dan@upvote.au 20 points 4 months ago* (6 children) They do an upgrade, ever server/switch/router etc ends up in the dumpster How many customers do this? At least here in the Bay Area, hard drives and SSDs get destroyed, but a lot of the other equipment goes to e-waste recyclers who end up refurbishing it and selling it on marketplaces like eBay. A lot of homelabbers get their equipment from eBay, and the source of that equipment is almost always second-hand data center equipment. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago (5 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 5 child comments replies: [–] dan@upvote.au 12 points 4 months ago* (4 children) And I would be interested on how they are referbing the equipment and selling for a profit My understanding is that an e-waste recycling company is contracted to take all the old equipment. The original company can say they've recycled it, record it as such, and doesn't care what's done with the equipment after that - whether that be reselling it, recycling it, whatever. The e-waste company is the one that handles finding the useful stuff and refurbishing it. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children) The big issue is that there's no risk and hardly any cost to the landfill, while there's a bit of work and thinking required for reuse, with not much more benefit than that it's doing the right thing. And you don't get to become a capitalist overlord for doing the right thing. It's high time that tax codes and regulation make dumping e-waste and unsorted trash extremely expensive. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent
[+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago (5 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 5 child comments replies: [–] dan@upvote.au 12 points 4 months ago* (4 children) And I would be interested on how they are referbing the equipment and selling for a profit My understanding is that an e-waste recycling company is contracted to take all the old equipment. The original company can say they've recycled it, record it as such, and doesn't care what's done with the equipment after that - whether that be reselling it, recycling it, whatever. The e-waste company is the one that handles finding the useful stuff and refurbishing it. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children) The big issue is that there's no risk and hardly any cost to the landfill, while there's a bit of work and thinking required for reuse, with not much more benefit than that it's doing the right thing. And you don't get to become a capitalist overlord for doing the right thing. It's high time that tax codes and regulation make dumping e-waste and unsorted trash extremely expensive. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] dan@upvote.au 12 points 4 months ago* (4 children) And I would be interested on how they are referbing the equipment and selling for a profit My understanding is that an e-waste recycling company is contracted to take all the old equipment. The original company can say they've recycled it, record it as such, and doesn't care what's done with the equipment after that - whether that be reselling it, recycling it, whatever. The e-waste company is the one that handles finding the useful stuff and refurbishing it. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children) The big issue is that there's no risk and hardly any cost to the landfill, while there's a bit of work and thinking required for reuse, with not much more benefit than that it's doing the right thing. And you don't get to become a capitalist overlord for doing the right thing. It's high time that tax codes and regulation make dumping e-waste and unsorted trash extremely expensive. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent
[+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children) The big issue is that there's no risk and hardly any cost to the landfill, while there's a bit of work and thinking required for reuse, with not much more benefit than that it's doing the right thing. And you don't get to become a capitalist overlord for doing the right thing. It's high time that tax codes and regulation make dumping e-waste and unsorted trash extremely expensive. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children) The big issue is that there's no risk and hardly any cost to the landfill, while there's a bit of work and thinking required for reuse, with not much more benefit than that it's doing the right thing. And you don't get to become a capitalist overlord for doing the right thing. It's high time that tax codes and regulation make dumping e-waste and unsorted trash extremely expensive. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent
[+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* Yeah, that's mostly a regulation/legal incentives situation, combined with lack of education on the side of the execs. It is possible to sell devices as "defective", even if they aren't defective. That way you don't have warranty or other legal obligations. Similar story with the "Scrap the whole device for data privacy reasons". That's not a thing. Scrapping the storage media, sure, totally. Scrapping the mainboard, case and power supply? That's crap. But the main issue is that there's no incentive for companies to reuse devices versus scrapping them. So they scrap the whole thing without regards to anything else, because it's a single decision that requires no further thought und it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter. If they'd have to pay for full recycling cost, so the cost for actually turning 100% of the device back into usable raw components, then they will instantly start giving those away for free. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 13 points 4 months ago (6 children) or they have devalued to zero so they cannot be sold for tax purposes. Well that's just stupid. In my country, if you sell property that's been depreciated to zero (or lower than its sale price in general), you're just supposed to record it as profit. Of course when you've depreciated something to zero and it's not something like a car where it's registered with the government, you could just give it away to employees or friends. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (2 children) That seems like the perfect department slush fund. Free cookies every friday! Bigger christmas party! permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago someone had to push it and start recycling new wire to keep the pizzas flowing ffs, someone always has to ruin a good thing. permalink fedilink source parent [–] vext01@feddit.uk 3 points 4 months ago (1 child) The problem is, few employees or friends will want an enterprise grade server screaming in their house. The waste described above makes me sad. Surely parts of servers can be recycled. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment load more comments (1 reply)
[+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (2 children) That seems like the perfect department slush fund. Free cookies every friday! Bigger christmas party! permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago someone had to push it and start recycling new wire to keep the pizzas flowing ffs, someone always has to ruin a good thing. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (2 children) That seems like the perfect department slush fund. Free cookies every friday! Bigger christmas party! permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago someone had to push it and start recycling new wire to keep the pizzas flowing ffs, someone always has to ruin a good thing. permalink fedilink source parent
[+] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 child) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago someone had to push it and start recycling new wire to keep the pizzas flowing ffs, someone always has to ruin a good thing. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago someone had to push it and start recycling new wire to keep the pizzas flowing ffs, someone always has to ruin a good thing. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] vext01@feddit.uk 3 points 4 months ago (1 child) The problem is, few employees or friends will want an enterprise grade server screaming in their house. The waste described above makes me sad. Surely parts of servers can be recycled. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment load more comments (1 reply)
[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 4 months ago (1 child) Even if they are perfectly good Could that perhaps be an issue of stupid licensing? With, smart licensing, or whatever, if the license is non-transferable, then the hardware is basically an expensive paper weight. I've heard Cisco used to give out Meraki devices for free on some events, because without a license they were totally useless. Until someone figured out how to run OpenWRT on them. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment load more comments (1 reply)
[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (1 child) The amount of waste out there like this is tragic. I could understand destroying hard drives, but the rest of the hardware? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment load more comments (1 reply)