Recycling old electronics isn’t necessarily something most Americans do. Many of us, it turns out, just stash our old computers, printers, and TV sets in the closet. Or we leave them at the curb.
But suppose properly recycling those electronics could help redress a potentially critical shortage of elements needed to make electric vehicles?
“Urban mining”
That’s the theory behind a new program in Japan, where a subsidiary of Dowa Holdings—a former mining company—has built a huge plant in Kosaka that liquefies recycled consumer electronics.
From molten material made of former circuit boards and other components, Dowa separates out gold, rare-earth metals and various minerals. Its feedstock includes both Japanese goods and those imported from other countries, including the U.S.
Call it “urban mining,” extracting valuable elements not from virgin ores but from the lodes of used consumer electronics stashed in city and suburban closets everywhere.
Rare-earth metals
The rare-earth metals in particular—among them neodymium and dysprosium—are used in batteries, power electronics, and electric motors, all necessary components of both hybrid and electric vehicles.
And 90 percent of the world’s supplies of those metals now come from China, which announced late last month that it would cut off shipments to Japan over an escalating diplomatic argument.
Recently, the media has caught on, and much coverage has ensued about a potential Chinese stranglehold over global supplies of rare earth metals
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Source: Nature2Energy