Integrating Life Cycle Management for a more Circular Data Centre Industry

The Data Centre Industry (DCI) is concentrated in North-West Europe, especially UK, Germany, France & Netherlands. DC equipment is replaced every 1–5 years, substantially contributing to the production of WEEE (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment), one of the fastest growing waste streams. WEEE from DC equipment contains Critical Raw Materials of high technical and economic importance and vulnerable to supply disruption, partly exported or sent to landfill at end of life. At present small share of DC equipment Critical Raw Materials are recycled and recovered per year. In this context, project partners from UK (London South Bank University), France (TEAM2, Terra Nova Development and WeLOOP), Germany (Wuppertal Institute for climate, environment and energy) and Netherlands (Green IT Amsterdam) are working together on a Circular Economy for the Data Centre Industry (CEDaCI). CEDaCI will facilitate the implementation of a Circular Economy (CE) for Critical Raw Materials in NWE and reduce the environmental impact arising from the growth in redundant equipment, by simultaneously increasing CRM recovery, reducing use of virgin materials and developing a secure and economically viable CRM supply chain. The project if co-funded by Interreg North-West Europe Programme. This contribution aims at presenting the CEDaCI project and sharing results of the LCM situational analysis for Data Centre Industry. The results of this phase include: State of art and assessment of current practices & emerging trends (with focus in all partner countries), Identify challenges and barriers and potential solutions for implementation, Establishment of criteria (age of the equipment, technology, components, etc.) for selection of equipment for refurbishing and recycling.