| Title | Exploring Social Dynamics of Hard-Disk Drives Circularity with an Agent-Based Approach |
| Publication Type | Conference Paper |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Authors | Walzberg, Julien, Zhao, Fu, Frost, Kali, Carpenter, Alberta, Heath, Garvin A. |
| Conference Name | 2021 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech) |
| Keywords | Agent-based modeling, Circular economy, Hard disks, hard-disk drives, Human Behavior, Industries, Measurement, Memory, Organizations, pubcrawl, renewable energy sources, Scalability, Social Agents, socio-technical systems, System Dynamics, theory of planned behavior |
| Abstract | By 2025, it is estimated that installed data storage in the U.S. will be 2.2 Zettabytes, generating about 50 million units of end-of-life hard-disk drives (HDDs) per year. The circular economy (CE) tackles waste issues by maximizing value retention in the economy, for instance, through reuse and recycling. However, the reuse of hard disk drives is hindered by the lack of trust organizations have toward other means of data removal than physically destroying HDDs. Here, an agent-based approach explores how organizations' decisions to adopt other data removal means affect HDDs' circularity. The model applies the theory of planned behavior to model the decisions of HDDs end-users. Results demonstrate that the attitude (which is affected by trust) of end-users toward data-wiping technologies acts as a barrier to reuse. Moreover, social pressure can play a significant role as organizations that adopt CE behaviors can set an example for others. |
| DOI | 10.1109/SusTech51236.2021.9467439 |
| Citation Key | walzberg_exploring_2021 |
Exploring Social Dynamics of Hard-Disk Drives Circularity with an Agent-Based Approach