With his technology proven through extensive testing, Aiden Neary is poised to offer the ITAD industry another option for data destruction that also allows for critical mineral recovery.
Neary launched Connecticut-based Xscindo in 2023 after a hacking incident involving a phone he traded in and thought was properly wiped. An investment banker by trade, he spent the next year researching and found that many people, due to concerns over their data getting retrieved post-disposal, either sent their devices for shredding — which isn’t a full-proof destruction method — or held them for lack of a better option.
Given the rise both in devices carrying sensitive data and potential bad actors looking to take advantage of retrieved information, he felt there could be another option.
So he compiled a team to develop a new method for Xscindo. That method puts devices through a sealed thermal process that Neary said destroys data-bearing components without shredding or wiping. Rather, the data-bearing components are turned into ores and fine powders, from which gold, copper and other minerals are pulled when the products are sent to domestic processors.
The plastics within the device are broken down and combusted at temperatures high enough to destroy PFAS and other potentially harmful ingredients; resulting emissions are mainly water vapor and carbon dioxide, along with trace constituents Neary said are well below permitted limits. Any remaining metals are likewise sent for processing.
“None of what we do is intended as a criticism of the current process,” said Neary, company founder and CEO. “Road maps worked perfectly well until GPS came along and offered a different approach. Electronics recycling has evolved, but we believe there is an opportunity to rethink parts of the end-of-life process using new technology.”
A lot of customers may not have a need for Xscindo’s level of service, he said. But government organizations, health care leaders and others whose devices contain highly sensitive information would be well-served by his company’s extra level of care, Neary said — including having as few hands as possible actually handle the items.
“We are seeing data-sensitive organizations hold onto end-of-life devices for longer because of concerns around data security and chain of custody,” he said. “We’re not targeting your average person.”
The process takes place inside pods that have been tested at a facility in Gillette, Wyoming. That facility has been able to process one-third of a ton of e-scrap per day, Neary said, including some material taken from landfills where the devices would otherwise have been buried (only about half of US states have e-scrap landfill bans).
Struck by the lack of transparency across the industry — many of the people he spoke to early in the process said they weren’t sure what happened to devices when disposed of — Neary said Xscindo provides customers with information that can support Scope 3 reporting and offers zero-landfill certification for material processed through its system. The company also maintains a secure chain of custody and provides visibility into the downstream disposition of equipment and recovered materials.
Xscindo, he said, syncs intention and outcome.
“The risk associated with reselling a device may or may not be acceptable, depending on the organization” he said. “Some companies have very little appetite for data risk. We are focused particularly on data-sensitive organizations that want accurate, auditable reporting on where their end-of-life equipment and recovered materials ultimately go.”
The company is also focused on keeping minerals on shore, Neary said, amid several federal policy changes, including a ban on black mass exports and a presidential determination authorizing the restriction of critical mineral exports. Those changes have contributed to a recent expansion in US mineral processing and recycling operations.
Every company Xscindo works with is American, he said, meaning those minerals stay on shore and offer a quicker solution to the nation’s mineral needs: “You’re burying stuff with your left hand, and your right hand is out there mining it fresh. That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Gillette will be the site of Xscindo’s first broader, commercial-scale facility next year, at which time Xscinso plans to establish a European presence in the United Kingdom.
Beyond that, expansion will depend on demand, Neary said. Xscindo plans to eventually operate these pods at facilities nationwide, building out near data centers, military bases and other locales with high volumes of sensitive devices — including landfills, which in some cases have allowed pickers to claim disposed-of electronics despite the inherent data-security risks and liability concerns should a device catch fire or otherwise create a hazard.
“People want to do the right thing,” he said. “I have yet to meet one landfill operator who wants to bury e-waste. They have no viable economic alternative.”
Policy changes combined with data concerns and the social responsibility efforts of companies should help companies like Xscindo carve a place in the ITAD marketplace, Neary said.
“We are not a silver bullet. We’re starting something,” he said. “A little becomes a lot. If we show how effective this approach to end of life can be, then more people will start taking it up.”
