The expansion of the infrastructure required to support Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to triple the annual volume of toxic electronic waste over the next 25 years, according to a report issued by the Basel Action Network (BAN).
According to this environmental organization, which monitors the international movement and disposal of electronic waste, this projected accumulation could be enough to fill six rows of containers around the globe. The discarded materials may contain hazardous substances such as mercury, cadmium, lead, and persistent chemical compounds, in addition to metals that require specific recovery methods.
The BAN survey focuses on projecting the amount of materials that will need to be manufactured due to the expansion of data centers in the coming years. Specifically in the United States, the organization estimates there will be at least 4,871 new centers, many of which are dedicated to AI.
To perform this impact calculation, BAN used an estimate of about 100 gigawatts (GW) of new global computing capacity by the year 2030. This calculation covers several crucial elements for processing centers, including servers, cooling systems, electrical infrastructure, and cabling.
Based on these factors, BAN predicts that hardware disposal could reach 13 million tons annually by 2030, a figure that exceeds the estimates of other studies on the sector's electronic waste.
Although future concerns exist, the disposal of electronic equipment already shows accelerated growth and constitutes a current problem. Jim Puckett, co-founder of BAN, informed The Guardian that only approximately 20% of this material receives proper disposal.
The entity works internationally to combat the illegal shipment of toxic waste to developing countries, places where some of this equipment may be dismantled or processed without proper environmental controls.
In Brazil, for example, the Brazilian Association for Recycling of Electronics and Home Appliances reports that more than 2.4 million tons of this material are produced annually. This volume is expected to increase with the expansion of data centers in the country, a scenario driven by the approval of Redata this Wednesday (09/16).
BAN warns that the speed at which AI is expanding is not being matched by an equivalent structure to manage the equipment. The organization alerts that if there are no changes in how these materials are designed, reused, and recycled, the advancement of AI could convert a growing part of technological infrastructure into toxic waste.