Seagate collaborates with eBay to enhance hard drive circularity initiative

Seagate and eBay have teamed up to offer a new storefront for factory-recertified hard drives as part of Seagate's Circularity Program, promoting sustainability and reducing e-waste in the tech industry.

Seagate is a founding member of the Circular Drive Initiative, showing their commitment to reducing e-waste and promoting sustainability in the tech industry.
Their partnership with eBay allows for a direct channel for consumers to access factory-recertified hard drives, making it easier for individuals to make environmentally conscious choices.
Seagate's circularity program has already made a significant impact, extending the life of over 1 million hard drives and preventing hundreds of metric tons of e-waste.

Seagate Technology Holdings plc, the powerhouse in mass-capacity data storage, has just made a major move towards sustainability by teaming up with none other than eBay, the e-commerce giant. This exciting collaboration has paved the way for Seagate to establish its very own storefront on eBay, providing consumers with a direct channel to access factory-recertified hard drives as part of the Seagate Circularity Program. But what exactly does all this mean?

Let’s break it down. Seagate, as one of the founding members of the Circular Drive Initiative, is on a mission to reduce e-waste by enabling the secure reuse of storage devices and minimizing hard drive shredding. You see, when a hard drive is shredded, it’s completely destroyed, making it impossible to recover any data. And while that may seem like a good thing from a security standpoint, it’s actually quite harmful to the environment. The rare earth materials contained within those shredded hard drives can’t be reused, which means they end up contributing to our ever-growing e-waste problem.

So, what’s the solution? Seagate is tackling this issue head-on by ensuring that its factory-recertified hard drives undergo a trusted level of data sanitization and comprehensive erasure. This means that even after a hard drive has been decommissioned, there’s no chance of any data being recovered. And don’t worry, Seagate follows industry standards like IEEE 2883, NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1, and ISO/IEC 27040:2015 to make sure everything is done properly.

Jason Feist, Seagate’s SVP of Products and Markets, highlighted the importance of reducing destructive sanitization methods, stating, “Tens of millions of hard drives are still being shredded yearly…Seagate builds circularity into the drives we bring to market.” In other words, Seagate is all about making sure their hard drives can be reused, rather than ending up in the shredder.

In fact, Seagate’s commitment to circularity has already made a significant impact. In the fiscal year 2023 alone, they managed to extend the life of around 1.19 million hard drives and solid-state drives through their circularity program, preventing a whopping 553 metric tons of e-waste. Now that’s something to be proud of!

But Seagate couldn’t have done it without the help of eBay. Renée Morin, eBay’s Chief Sustainability Officer, expressed her excitement about the partnership, saying, “Refurbishing items gives them a longer life and generally reduces greenhouse gas emissions. In our efforts to be a responsible, sustainable marketplace, this collaboration shows that we all have a part to play.” It’s clear that eBay is fully on board with Seagate’s mission to make a positive environmental impact.

So, what does this mean for you as a consumer? Well, it means that you now have access to a range of top-quality, recertified hard drives directly through the new Seagate storefront on eBay. These drives come with a limited warranty and have been thoroughly tested and recertified by Seagate themselves. So you can trust that you’re getting a reliable product that’s not only good for your data storage needs but also good for the planet.

Seagate’s collaboration with eBay marks a significant step towards a more sustainable future for the tech industry. By reusing and extending the life of hard drives, we can minimize e-waste and reduce our impact on the environment. So next time you’re in need of a new hard drive, consider going the circular route and check out Seagate’s factory-recertified drives on eBay. Your data and the planet will thank you.

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Background Information

About Seagate:

Seagate Technology, founded in 1978, is a leading data storage solutions provider that specializes in hard drives and storage solutions for consumers, businesses, and data centers. With a reputation for reliability and innovation, Seagate's products address diverse storage needs, from individual data storage to large-scale enterprise environments. The company has played a crucial role in shaping the data storage landscape and continues to be at the forefront of technological advancements.