Data, too, must be recycled
Digital Cleanup Day, held from 10 to 15 March 2025, mobilised citizens and organisations to sort through their digital data. This awareness week, culminating on Saturday 15 March, aims to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology through simple but concrete actions. We invite you to read this article describing the initiatives taken and the good practices to adopt for more responsible digital use.
Invisible digital, heavy consequences
Every day, tonnes of useless data quietly pile up on company servers. Behind that virtual mountain lies a very physical reality: a growing digital footprint, energy-hungry and expensive.
For World Recycling Day, Systnaps raises the alarm on a phenomenon that remains far too underestimated: digital hoarding disorder.
Figures that speak
- 50% of data stored in companies is obsolete or unused (Veritas, 2023)
- Up to 55% of data is dark data: never used, yet kept at great expense (Splunk, 2023)
- Data centres consume 2% of the world's electricity, a figure that could quadruple by 2030
- 1 TB of useless data = 2 tonnes of CO₂ a year (the equivalent of a return Paris–New York flight)
- The growth of AI and cloud accounts for 30 to 40% of the increase in digital energy needs (McKinsey, 2023)
Recycling your data: a responsible and strategic move
Faced with this invisible over-consumption, recycling your data becomes an ecological, economic and regulatory imperative. It is not merely about freeing up space, but about:
- Significantly reducing the carbon footprint of your information system
- Optimising storage costs and IT performance
- Ensuring better compliance with regulations (GDPR, DORA, ESG, etc.)
- Making information systems more resilient and sustainable
The Systnaps solution: Data Recycling®
At Systnaps, we have developed an exclusive Data Recycling® approach that makes it possible to:
✅ Identify and remove ROT data (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial) and dark data ✅ Reduce the carbon and energy impact of information systems ✅ Optimise IT resource usage and improve the traceability of useful data ✅ Align governance practices with regulatory requirements and CSR objectives
Act now for responsible digital
🛑 Stop digital waste. It is time to sort, to act consciously, and to embed data recycling in every organisation's digital strategy.
Ready to launch your data sorting and optimisation project? Get in touch to deploy use cases tailored to your context.