Do I need to remove the hard drive from iMac Pro (2017) before recycling?

What is your purpose for removing the hard drive?

If you are concerned about your data being securely wiped, then you just need to erase the hard drive using a secure erase procedure so that you overwrite the entire hard drive with zeros. You can do this by booting to a macOS installer & using Disk Utility to erase the drive, but by utilizing Disk Utility's "secure erase" option. How you do this depends on the version of macOS installer.

If the Mac isn't fully functional, but does power on, then it may still be possible to erase the drive without removing it.

It would really help to know the exact model of the Mac and also whether this Mac still works so that you can perform the secure erase without needing to remove the hard drive. You can get the exact model of the Mac by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac", or if the Mac is unable to boot, then by entering the Mac's system serial number into the check coverage page here:

Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support

Removing the HDD depends on year model.

The older models are difficult and the newer models are sealed.

If you are set on removing the HDD, you'll have to google up some repair guides for that model.

If the Mac will boot to an external drive I would just erase it in place and let somebody else go through the trouble of taking it apart.

This forum section is for iMacs made before 2006. Are the ones that you are recycling that old?

OP --> iMac Pro (2017)

Limnos wrote:

OP --> iMac Pro (2017)

I ask because those equipment line entries are so often wrong.