scte PRESENTS
FUTURE OF TECH Panel 3: Sustainability
Because right now, they’re in competition with each other – and they both can’t win.”
that people think recycling is the solution – it’s not,” she said. “Recycling is number nine. It’s the last resort.” Instead, she said the priority should be extending product lifecycles through reuse, refurbishment and remanufacturing. “70 to 80% of a product’s carbon is embedded in its creation. So the answer is to keep that product in use for as long as possible.”
Sustainability warns of critical minerals crunch
Van Dyke highlighted fibre deployment as a major pressure point, noting that global investment could reach $250 billion (£189 billion) by 2030, alongside increasing demand for scarce materials such as germanium. “The mining industry cannot provide the level of materials required,” she said. “This is going to become the existential problem of our age.” The panel debated whether circular economy models can realistically close the gap. Van Dyke questioned the economics of recycling, pointing out that less than 20% of global e-waste is currently recovered. “The business case often doesn’t hold up,” she said. “It’s expensive, energy intensive and often chemically complex.”
The afternoon panel at The Future of Tech warned that the rapid growth of AI, data centres and network infrastructure is on a collision course with the physical limits of global resources, raising questions over how sustainable current growth models really are.
The starkest warning came from Critical Minerals founder Hub Amanda van Dyke, who argued that demand for critical minerals is rising far faster
That theme was picked up by Adam Whitehouse, Founder and Chair, TMT First, who argued that repair and refurbishment are not just
than supply can realistically match. “In the last 25 years, we’ve doubled global metals and minerals production,” she said. “We will have to double it again by 2050 just to maintain current trends – and quadruple it if we actually want an energy transition.” She warned that digital infrastructure and AI are now competing directly with energy systems for the same resources. “My question is: who decides what’s more important, AI or the energy transition?
sustainable, but commercially compelling. “It really is cheaper and better to repair than just buy new,” he said. Whitehouse highlighted that the majority of a device’s carbon footprint sits in its core components, particularly the motherboard, meaning extending device life delivers significant savings. He added that manufacturers are beginning to respond, with longer software support
Victoria D’Arcy, Chief Value Recovery Officer, All Things
Circular, suggested that the industry is focusing too heavily on recycling rather than reuse. “One of my biggest bugbears is
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MAY 2026 Volume 48 No.2
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