How do you recover rare earth elements?

Through e-waste recycling, rare-earth metals can be recovered from electronic products such as mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles batteries, once they reach the end of their life.

What materials are we running out of?

Here are six already under severe pressure from current rates of consumption:

1. Water. Freshwater only makes 2.5\% of the total volume of the world’s water, which is about 35 million km3.
2. Oil. The fear of reaching peak oil continues to haunt the oil industry.
3. Natural gas.
4. Phosphorus.
5. Coal.
6. Rare earth elements.

Can rare earth metals be recycled?

Rare earth elements are critical to modern life and society. Very limited recycling of these critical elements currently takes place. Advances can be made in recycling of the REE from magnets, fluorescent lamps, batteries and catalysts. Increased amounts of REE recycling is needed to ensure security of supply.

What are rare earth materials used for?

Uses. Rare earth elements (REEs) are used in a variety of industrial applications, including electronics, clean energy, aerospace, automotive and defence. The manufacturing of permanent magnets represents the single largest and most important end use for REEs, accounting for 38\% of total forecasted demand.

Which metals can be recovered from mobile phones?

Smartphones are pocket-sized vaults of precious metals and rare earths. A typical iPhone is estimated to house around 0.034g of gold, 0.34g of silver, 0.015g of palladium and less than one-thousandth of a gram of platinum. It also contains the less valuable but still significant aluminium (25g) and copper (around 15g).

Will the world run out of metal?

It’s unlikely we’ll run out of iron or aluminum any time soon, because they’re the 4th and 3rd most abundant elements respectively in the Earth’s crust. We’re unlikely to run out of copper or zinc because they’re very easy to recycle.

How are rare earth metals disposed of?

These elements currently have a significant environmental burden. Despite their capability for reuse, the vast majority are discarded into the trash after only one use. Recycling rare-earth-containing products would provide a steady, domestic source of rare earths to manufacturers while also reducing waste.

What are rare earth metals used for?