Example embodiments facilitate prioritizing the recycling of computing resources, e.g., server-side computing systems and accompanying resources (e.g., non-volatile memory, accompanying firmware, data, etc.) leased by customers in a cloud-based computing environment, whereby computing resources (e.g., non-volatile memory) to be forensically analyzed/inspected, sanitized, and/or updated are prioritized for recycling based on estimates of when the computing resources are most likely to require recycling, e.g., via background sanitizing and updating. Computing resources that are likely to be recycled first are given priority over computing resources that are more likely to be recycled later. By prioritizing the recycling of computing resources according to embodiments discussed herein, other cloud-based computing resources that are used to implement computing resource recycling can be efficiently allocated and preserved.