Governments and public sector organizations spent almost $17 million yearly to destroy solid-state drives.
They also spend another $40 million to replace the devices taking the total amount spent to $57 million. In the United States, the cost of destroying SSDs and replacing them is between $6.9 and $7.3 million. In the U.K., it is between $6.4 and $6.9 million.
The findings were made in the Blancco Technology Group’s report on data management methods.
The report calls for recycling and reusing SSDs instead of spending millions to destroy and replace them.
By doing this, the report believes Government will be able to protect sensitive data.
93% of respondents stated that their organizations had defined plans on reducing the environmental impact caused by IT equipment. However, only 21% of organizations are implementing the plans.
“We’ve seen several public sector departments benefit from moving away from destroying data-bearing assets to reusing them or building up the circular economy. Our study highlights that there are significant opportunities for policy reform surrounding SSD data protection as national policymakers seek to steward financial, environmental, and data resources entrusted to their care,” Alan Bentley, president of global strategy at Blancco explained.
For more information, read the original story in TechRepublic.