Amazon Web Services (AWS) is enhancing its efforts to recycle and reuse its datacentre hardware by establishing a reverse logistics facility in Dublin, Ireland, operated by its Re:Cycle Reverse Logistics subsidiary.
The facility is focused on giving a second life to the component parts of AWS datacentre hardware and server racks, such as processors and network cards, while also extracting precious metals found inside these components.
Managed by Re:Cycle Reverse Logistics Ireland, an organization within the Amazon.com group of companies based in Dublin, the facility is the first of its kind outside the US. This move aligns with AWS’s significant datacentre presence in Ireland, with reports indicating the operation of 10 datacentres in Dublin alone.
Re:Cycle Reverse Logistics Ireland was established in March 2023 to support Amazon’s net-zero carbon objectives, with 18 employees as per the accounts from December 2023. The facility, along with its manufacturing sites for assembling recycled hardware into new datacentre equipment, has generated 850 new jobs in Ireland and contributes to the company’s net-zero goals.
“This circular economy initiative supports Amazon’s path to reach net-zero carbon by ensuring fewer new components need to be produced, saving raw materials and energy,” stated AWS. “While the operation is predominantly focused on reuse, where waste is generated, zero waste goes to landfill; instead, it is sent for high-end recycling.”
Amazon has similar subsidiaries in other regions worldwide, including the US, to support the recycling and reuse of datacentre hardware across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Circular economy projects are increasingly important to help us build a more sustainable economy
Roderic O’Gorman, Green Party
Roderic O’Gorman, leader of the Green Party and Irish minister for children, equality, disability, integration, and youth, inaugurated the Re:Cycle Reverse Logistics building and emphasized the significance of promoting the circular economy in Ireland.
“Circular economy projects are increasingly important to help us build a more sustainable economy,” expressed O’Gorman. “We need to work together to ensure that products, whatever their shape or form, are kept in use for as long as possible through smart design, repair, and reuse. It’s great to see this approach being put into practice at the Amazon facility in Ballycoolin in North Dublin.”
He added: “What impressed me most are the skills and dedication of the hundreds of people who work at this site in Dublin and how they are making the circular economy a reality. Projects like this help to both reinforce Ireland’s global reputation as a sustainability leader and to achieve climate goals such as halving our emissions by 2030.”
According to AWS, its reverse logistics programs led to diverting 14.6 million hardware components from landfills globally in 2023.
