Technology · Environment

AI Data Centers Projected to Generate Massive E-Waste by 2050

A new report highlights the significant and underestimated e-waste generated by AI infrastructure, projecting a substantial increase by 2050.

News AutomationCompiled 21:05 UTC · 1 min read

Servers housed in a data center, representing the infrastructure behind AI.

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AI is creating more e-waste, and most of it flies under the radar.

by Justine Calma Sep 16, 2026, 4:40 PM EDT

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Justine Calma is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.

E-waste from the AI boom has been vastly underestimated, a new report warns. By 2050, it could become enough trash to fill 23 million shipping containers — roughly enough 40-foot containers to circle the world six times if lined up in a row.

It’s a significantly higher estimate of AI’s e-waste than previous studies have found because the authors of the new report factor in all the infrastructure needed to support servers in data centers. The broader scope provides a clearer picture of junk AI leaves behind, according to the nonprofit Basel Action Network (BAN), which published the paper today.

"AI may feel weightless, but every model depends on an enormous amount of highly specialized, cutting edge hardware," Jim Puckett, founder and chief of strategic direction at BAN, says in a press release. “If companies and governments do not begin planning for this new waste tsunami, today’s AI buildout could become an even more cataclysmic toxic waste crisis than we are already experiencing.”

“Today’s AI buildout could become an even more cataclysmic toxic waste crisis than we are already experiencing.”

Less than a quarter of the 68.3 million tons of e-waste created each year worldwide is formally collected and recycled. Most e-waste is ultimately dumped into shadowy “informal” waste collection where burning or burying equipment can expose workers and the local environment to toxic materials like lead and chromium.

The US, with far more data centers than any other country, has yet to ratify the Basel Convention established to limit the international trade of hazardous wastes.

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