End of life recycling technologies - hard drive impairment

The problem addressed was the physical impairment of hard drives. In Endicott, NY a dismantle and salvage operation was established in the early 1990s and a manual operation was put in place for the impairment of hard drives. It is quite straightforward to imagine how such a manual process could be implemented. The process basically consisted of an operator placing the hard drive to be impaired on a work bench and then impairing the hard drive by striking the hard drive with a hammer.