This position paper critically examines the European Union’s current policy discourse on the twinning of the green and digital transitions. While digitalisation is widely promoted as a key enabler of sustainability through increased efficiency and data-driven innovation, the growing environmental costs of digital infrastructures—such as energy-intensive data centers—are increasingly acknowledged. The contribution argues that current EU policy imaginaries remain rooted in neoliberal logics, emphasizing economic competitiveness and growth, often at odds with the ecological limits demanded for a sustainable future. Through the lens of digital humanism and critical data studies, the paper calls to explore how dominant visions of the digital/data economy are inherently unsustainable, built upon assumptions of infinite expansion and unbounded data accumulation. It builds on the concept of “waste” as a critical entry point for rethinking digital policy: both in terms of data that is unnecessary or unused, and the resource-intensive nature of digital technologies.