Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it had reused and recycled 90.9 percent of its servers and components in 2024, exceeding its 2025 target of 90 percent a year ahead of schedule.
The achievement, disclosed in a blog post by Rani Borkar, corporate vice president for Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure, comes as the software giant deepens its efforts to reduce environmental impact across its cloud operations and supply chain.
The company said it reached the milestone a year ahead of schedule through innovation and cross-functional collaboration, including expanding its Circular Centers network and pioneering methods for recovering rare earth elements from used hardware.
Recovery of Critical Materials Gets US Boost
In collaboration with Western Digital, Critical Materials Recycling, and PedalPoint Recycling, Microsoft said it had recovered rare earth elements like neodymium and precious metals such as gold and copper from roughly 50,000 pounds of retired hard disk drives.
The US-based program employed an acid-free process that achieved a 90 percent recovery rate, with up to 95 percent fewer emissions than traditional mining methods.
The program was designed to minimize transportation emissions and improve the resilience of the domestic rare earth supply chain by reducing reliance on imported materials.
Microsoft said the effort set a new standard for in-country recovery of critical metals and addressed technical hurdles, such as achieving high recovery rates without harsh chemicals.
Circular Centers Drive Further Gains
The company has also expanded its network of Circular Centers, which refurbish and repurpose decommissioned servers and datacenter hardware, to six global locations, with new sites planned in Wales, Australia and Texas.
Microsoft reported reusing more than 3.2 million components in 2024 through these centers, a 30 percent year-over-year increase in value recovery.
Separately, Microsoft said it had diverted over 2,500 metric tons of packaging waste from landfills by recycling materials from more than 30,000 server racks.
The company is also testing reusable packaging solutions to further reduce waste and lower logistics costs.
Efforts include replacing expanded polyethylene foam with sustainable paper and pulp alternatives and working with suppliers to make multi-layer packaging more recyclable.
Microsoft’s zero-waste initiative is part of a broader environmental strategy that also includes goals to become carbon negative and water positive by 2030, and to protect more land than it uses.
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