Many data centers are accelerating refresh cycles, regulators are tightening reporting and reuse rules, and boards are asking for verifiable sustainability outcomes. For hyperscale, regional, and local data center operators, the result is clear: IT asset disposition (ITAD) has moved from facilities-based task to strategic function.
Below are seven developments shaping the ITAD landscape now, compared to last year, along with practical actions you can take to prepare for the IT landscape in 2026. SK tes has positioned its global operational network and multi-national decommissioning programs to be the partner of choice for complex IT refreshes, data center exits, and returns programs.
7 Trends for ITAD and Data Center Decommissioning in 2026
1. AI adoption is compressing data center refresh cycles
2. Reuse-first strategies gain regulatory tailwinds
3. ESG reporting is no longer optional for some companies – and neither is the broader sustainability disclosure CSRD demands
4. Security by design and zero-trust programs
5. Battery circularity is accelerating alongside data center growth
6. Media sanitization standards continue to tighten
7. Net zero commitments push carbon-accountable ITAD
AI adoption is compressing data center refresh cycles
Enterprises are building and iterating AI stacks faster than traditional hardware life cycles, which pulls forward obsolescence for servers, accelerators, and storage. AI build-outs and workload shifts are reshaping data center strategy and site design, accelerator generations and HBM bandwidth are advancing quickly and cooling strategies are evolving.
GPU generations, memory bandwidth requirements, and power-density constraints are changing year to year, and many procurement teams are re-evaluating five- to six-year horizons and piloting shorter cycles. That acceleration produces higher decommissioning volumes, tighter timelines, and more complex multi-site logistics. For ITAD providers, this translates into a need for processing at scale including media-type specific workflows for SSD and NVMe, and programmatic sanitization that produces auditable artifacts for every asset.
Upstream market dynamics can also create whiplash. Capacity gets ordered ahead of demand, then redeployed or retired when models, interconnects, or cooling strategies change. Operators need ITAD partners with scalability, allowing them to flex with these waves, absorb surges, and document reuse or recovery outcomes that stand up to ESG assurance. Expect more robotics and computer vision for identification, tighter reconciliation at end-of-use intake, and automated wipe policies keyed to asset metadata.
See also:
The Next Web on robots in e-waste
Next Steps: Pre-book decommissioning windows with an ITAD partner that can execute serialized intake, programmatic wipe, and global logistics at scale.
Reuse-first strategies gain regulatory tailwinds
In 2025, the adoption of the Basel Amendments on e-waste reshaped compliance on e-waste disposition, covering more materials and requiring prior informed consent on cross-border shipments. As a result, enterprises are now experiencing longer lead times, more restrictive routing options, and a greater need to classify assets accurately before shipment – making rese pathways close to the point of origin more practical and more attractive.
Forthcoming EU measures will amplify these shifts. The EU’s updated Waste Shipment Regulation requires usage of the Digital Waste Shipment System (DIWASS) as of May 21, 2026, which will require all notifications, routing, documentation, and regulator interactions to occur through a unified digital platform. This will increase scrutiny on the legitimacy of reuse claims, pushing companies to produce robust chain-of-custody records to avoid reclassification as waste.
The parallel Right to Repair directive, is reshaping expectations around longevity and refurbishment by expanding access to repair information, diagnostics, and parts availability. For ITAD programs this accelerates demand for enhanced repair and refurbishment services, detailed reporting and transparency around repair versus replacement decisions. Together, these regulations push global ITAD programs towards traceable chain of custody, verifiable reuse outcomes, and landfill-diversion efforts aligned with ESG commitments.
See also:
Why the New E-Waste Rules Matter,
France's Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law: What It Means For You
Next Steps: Set reuse and diversion targets per site and per asset class and require quarterly reporting that you can lift directly into ESG disclosures.
ESG reporting is no longer optional for some companies – and neither is the broader sustainability disclosure CSRD demands
The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires large, listed companies to report not just ESG metrics, but also detailed governance, strategy, risk, value chain, and double materiality information, all of which must stand up to assurance. . The Omnibus I amendments, agreed at the end of 2025, streamline some requirements, aimed at reducing administrative burden. Omnibus 1 narrows the scope of CSRD to only larger companies, postpones reporting deadlines until 2028 and reduces the reporting on value chains for companies in scope.
Meanwhile, ISSB’s global baselines (IFRS S1 and S2) create a global reporting baseline, and the U.S. SEC framework continues to mandate disclosure of material sustainability factors. Because CSRD and ISSB both emphasize traceability and value chain data, robust ITAD systems play an important role by generating independently verifiable evidence for circularity outcomes and Scope 3 emissions accounting.
See also:
ITAD’s Role in Australia’s New ESG Mandate
The Carbon Loop Calculator – New Revolutionary Reporting Tool for ITAD
Next Steps: Require independently verifiable ITAD reports that quantify avoided emissions, reuse rates, and material recovery in a format suitable for CSRD and ISSB reporting.
Security by design and zero-trust programs
Retired IT devices and media are part of the cyberattack surface. Discarded routers, switches, and hard drives have been found to contain company credentials, network configurations, and proprietary data. Real-world incidents reinforce the scale of this bling spot and these failures highlight a systemic gap – factory resets and ad-hoc wiping tools are no longer sufficient in an environment where the average data breach now cots more than $4.4 million and regulators expect verifiable, standards-aligned data sanitization processes.
As organizations modernize their security architectures, zero-trust principles are extending beyond networks and endpoints to encompass the full lifecycle of IT hardware – including what happens after a device is powered down for the last time. IT leaders are moving towards cryptographic erasure, manufacturer-supported sanitization commands, and policy-driven workflows that trigger secure disposal steps automatically during offboarding and refresh cycles.
Zerotrust principles are driving organizations to review how they offboard assets and standards bodies are simultaneously raising the minimum requirements, ensuring sanitization is consistent, verifiable, and defensible across technologies. We explore this in next section.
See also:
Why IT Leaders Must Prioritize Retired IT Hardware for Cyber Security
Next Steps: Adopt policy controls that select Clear, Purge, or Destroy per device and data classification, and store machine-readable proof with the asset record.
Battery circularity is accelerating alongside data center growth
Industrial storage, backup systems and mobility fleets are expanding, and end-of-life batteries face stringent demands. Requirements of EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 began implementation in 2024 with a mandated symbol designating them for the proper recycling stream, followed in 2025 with producers being required to have due diligence policies for batteries.
Manufacturers and operators need to start preparing now for mandates beginning in 2027: All LMT, EV, and industrial batteries over 2 kWh capacity must have an electronic “battery passport” with a QR code and CE marking providing battery-specific information and sustainability requirements. By year-end 2027, requirements for recycled content and material recovery will apply. By 2031, batteries sold in the EU must include at least 6% lithium from recycled content, as well as meet targets for recycled cobalt, nickel and lead.
Organizations also need to prepare for the United States’s efforts to develop the Extended Battery Producer Responsibility (EPR) Framework, a set of rules that will require producers to manage batteries’ end-of-life costs. That may include product design, collection and transportation systems, mandatory recycling and reporting requirements.
The EV battery recycling market projected to grow rapidly over the next several years (9.37% CAGR through 2033), reinforcing the need for certified processes and documentation.
Next Steps: Inventory both stationary and mobile batteries, align processes and vendors to regulation 2023/1542 requirements, and capture recovery and recycled-content metrics for ESG reporting.
Media sanitization standards continue to tighten
Proper ITAD requires adherence to the most current, device-specific data-sanitization standards. The 2025 update to the NIST SP 800-88 reinforces the framework’s three sanitization categories – Clear, Purge, and Destroy – while adding expanded guidance for modern storage media, clearer verification expectations, and stronger documentation and audit requirements.
At the same time, the industry is moving toward more technology-specific sanitization expectations, particularly for solid-state devices. The IEEE 2883-2022 standard refines and extends the NIST model by providing updated definitions of Clear, Purge, and Destruct that reflect the realities of SSDs, NVMe drives, embedded storage, and controller-based architectures. IEEE 2883 also codifies verification steps, emphasizes the requirement for manufacturer-supported sanitization commands, and explicitly encourages sustainable outcomes – reuse, redeployment, or recycling, when consistent with security requirements These practices reduce environmental impact and help maximize value recovery from retired assets.
In addition to meeting the technical requirements of these standards, organizations must maintain robust serialized asset tracked, strict chain-of-custody controls, and continuous monitoring of sanitization processes, including third-party ITAD providers. The strengthened 2025 NIST revisions place great emphasis on auditability, making verifiable logs, automation, and documented controls essential. As a result, organizations should plan to invest in updated tools, expanded verification systems, and enhanced process governance to remain compliant.
See also:
IEEE 2883-2022 Data Destruction Standards Explained
Unlocking 150 Million Opportunities: Data Destruction at SK Tes
What is NIST 800-88, and what is meant by Clear, Purge, and Destroy?
Next Steps: Adopt a written, audited media-sanitization program aligned to NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 and IEEE 2883 that includes serialized asset tracking, method-selection matrices (Clear, Purge, Destroy), automated verification logs, chain-of-custody records, and signed certificates of sanitization retained for compliance.
Net zero commitments push carbon-accountable ITAD
Large enterprises are adopting science-based targets (SBTs) as a key component of sustainable business strategy. SBTs are a framework for limiting an organization’s greenhouse gas emissions to a level that helps limit global warming, with an eventual goal of net zero emissions.
As the public, government and quasi-governmental organizations press for corporate responsibility on the issue of climate change, adopting SBTs and a net zero goal can be a competitive advantage. As potential partners and vendors also adopt net zero goals – including nearly half of the Forbes 2000 companies – they seek companies who can assist them in that effort. They will prefer contracting with vendors that can quantify carbon benefits from reuse and high-value recycling, and partners who can document avoided emissions from redeployment and end-market use. The future is carbon accounting for circularity, including second-life scenarios and shared ownership of avoided emissions along the value chain.
See also:
SK Tes Commits to Net Zero Economy for ITAD, Batteries & E waste
Science-Based Targets Explained: Aligning with Climate Science
Next Steps: Ask every decommissioning project to produce a short carbon memo that quantifies and documents the greenhouse gas impact from reuse and maps them to your Scope 3 Category 11 and 12 rules. The memo should clearly state what was counted and what was not, and the assumptions used.
Why choose SK Tes for global ITAD and data center decommissioning services
SK Tes operates a global footprint purpose-built for enterprise ITAD and battery stewardship, with standardized intake, serialized tracking, and documented reuse and recycling outcomes. For data center decommissions, SK Tes offers site surveys, method statements, global logistics, programmatic sanitization, and independently verifiable ESG and security reporting. See a representative hyperscale decommissioning case study for how multi-site, multi-country projects are executed and reported.
Our quick compliance checklist for 2026 ITAD planning
- Policy: Update decommissioning and sanitization policies to align with IEEE 2883-2022 and NIST SP 800-88r1 with device-specific controls.
- Security: Embed ITAD tasks into zero-trust offboarding with proof of destruction.
- Reuse KPIs: Set reuse and diversion targets per site and asset class and require quarterly verification.
- ESG: Ensure ITAD reports are assurance-ready for CSRD and compatible with ISSB baselines. Track avoided emissions from reuse.
- Batteries: Align stationary and mobile battery flows to EU 2023/1542 and prepare for growing U.S. stewardship obligations.
- Capacity: Pre-book decommissioning windows for AI hardware cohorts to avoid bottlenecks and unplanned storage.
To scope a regional or global data center decommissioning program, or to align your ITAD operations to 2026 requirements, contact SK tes today..
