"In South Korea several weeks ago, the U.S. and China came to a temporary agreement, in which they'll kick a rare-earth can down the road. The agreement took the form of a one-year pause in the dispute between the two nations over rare earth elements (REEs): China postponed imposing newly announced export controls on 17 different REEs and, in turn, the U.S. announced it would reduce certain tariffs on Chinese goods."
"Every year, millions of tons of electronic waste and batteries pile up in landfills or languish in drawers-old laptops and broken phones, obsolete keyboards, and rusty routers. These discarded gadgets may be junk, but they're also laden with circular ore. They contain cadmium, lithium, cobalt, and other valuable elements that can be extracted, refined, and reused. Recovery rates on materials in lithium-ion batteries, for example, can reach as high as 98% for cobalt, 95% for nickel, and 90% for copper and aluminum."
The U.S. and China enacted a one-year pause in their rare-earth dispute, with China postponing export controls on 17 REEs and the U.S. reducing certain tariffs. China dominates global supply chains for REEs and critical raw materials, creating economic and strategic vulnerability for the United States and allies across industries from smartphones to advanced weapons. Short-term relief from supply stress does not eliminate long-term risks from geopolitical shifts. Urban mining offers a domestic alternative by recovering valuable elements from electronic waste and batteries. High recovery rates for lithium-ion battery materials make circular sourcing viable. Properly scaled recycling could supply significant industrial demand.
Read at Fast Company
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