Experts call for mandatory recycling of products containing rare metals |Proyecto de Indumetal en el diario The Guardian

Posted by aclimaadmin | 14/05/2021 | Sektoreari buruzko albisteak

Rare elements such as indium, yttrium, neodymium, cobalt and lithium are vital for the production of low-carbon technology, but many are being thrown away because of the lack of a requirement to recycle them, industry experts have warned.

Concern is growing over the future supply of such elements, as the switch to green technology – including electric vehicles, solar panels and low-carbon heating – will require far greater volumes of rare earths and other critical raw materials.

Industry experts have called for tougher rules on recycling, in a report from Cewaste, a two-year project funded by the EU as part of its Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The authors examined what happens to such materials currently, and their potential future supply and cost.

Recycling should be mandatory for the critical raw materials present in circuit boards; magnets used in disc drives and electric vehicles; batteries for electric vehicles; and fluorescent lamps, they concluded.

Pascal Leroy, the director-general of the WEEE Forum, one of the organisations behind the report published on Monday, said: “The supply of these materials is not assured – for example, some come from countries where there is political instability. But some of these materials are critical [for green technology in future]. This should be regulated through mandatory standards.”

While relatively low-value metals such as copper, iron and even platinum are frequently recycled, rare metals are ignored or thrown away, because their use is often in small quantities that recyclers deem too expensive to recover.

However, uncertainties over the future supply of such materials and rapidly increasing demand, driven by the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, could force a supply crunch in future for critical materials, which would not only raise prices but could prove highly disruptive to forging a green economy, the report’s authors found. Waiting for such price rises to make recycling economical would leave manufacturers highly vulnerable to future shocks, they said.

Federico Magalini, the managing director of Sofies UK, a consultancy involved in the Cewaste report, said: “If we leave it to business as usual, we will dissipate the materials and in 20 years’ time we will have a shortage. The economic incentive to recycle some materials is missing currently.”

The small quantities of rare materials present in end products means that recycling for some materials could be concentrated in a small number of facilities. For instance, Europe would need only a handful of factories to recover fluorescent powders from all the lamps used across the continent.

Recycling efforts have tended to concentrate on high-volume metals that are easier to recycle, such as iron, aluminium and copper. In the EU, the regulatory targets are based on weight and volume, so there is little incentive for recyclers to seek out the small volumes of rare metals, despite their value.

The International Energy Agency recently calculated that if the world is to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050, demand for critical and rare minerals will be six times higher than today by 2040. Demand for lithium alone will be 40 times higher in 2040 because of its use in batteries.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the energy watchdog, said: “The data shows a looming mismatch between the world’s strengthened climate ambitions and the availability of critical minerals that are essential to realising those ambitions. Left unaddressed, these potential vulnerabilities could make global progress towards a clean energy future slower and more costly, and therefore hamper international efforts to tackle climate change.”

The IEA found that the production and processing of many materials, such as lithium, cobalt and rare earths, was highly concentrated in a handful of countries, with the top three producers accounting for more than three-quarters of global supplies. The Democratic Republic of the Congo produced 70% of cobalt and rare earths in 2019, and China produced 60%. China is also responsible for refining nearly 90% of the rare earths used globally.

 This article was amended on 11 May 2021. Cobalt is a critical raw material but it is not a rare-earth metal as stated in an earlier version of the quick guide.çFuente: The Guardian

Posts Relaccionados

Posted by aclimaadmin | 27 martxoa 2024
Desde hoy, está disponible la primera herramienta web que permitirá calcular la huella de carbono, la huella ambiental y una batería de indicadores de economía circular con un enfoque de...
Posted by aclimaadmin | 21 martxoa 2024
Se ha desarrollado un proceso que combina la descarga profunda de baterías de ion litio y el posterior proceso de fragmentación electrohidráulica para el reciclaje de baterías en el marco...
Posted by aclimaadmin | 21 martxoa 2024
Las embarcaciones de carga, de 6.000 y 9.100 toneladas respectivamente, ayudarán a Grona Shipping a descarbonizar su flota y han sido concebidas para operar en el Mar del Norte y...