【By Observer News, Wang Kaiwen】To reduce reliance on Chinese rare earths, the U.S. Department of Defense spent $400 million last week to acquire shares, becoming the largest shareholder of the U.S.'s largest rare earth producer, MP Materials. Currently, the U.S. is also targeting another important source — electronic waste recycling.
"Old laptops and mobile phones may find new life in the battle for rare earth metals with China," reported CNBC on July 13 with the title. Any electronic devices that cannot be refurbished and resold, including old computers, smartphones, servers, home appliances, and medical equipment, may be disassembled and recycled to extract gold, silver, copper, nickel, steel, aluminum, lithium, cobalt, and other crucial metals for various industries. Now, U.S. recyclers are increasingly extracting rare earth elements such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, and dysprosium from this e-waste.
Kunal Sinha, head of global recycling operations at Glencore, said that until recently, e-waste recycling had only been taken seriously as an important supply source. However, many people still do not realize how much potential this industry has.
The report pointed out that U.S. manufacturers have long relied on domestic and foreign suppliers, especially Chinese companies, for the metals and rare earths they need. However, as these supply chains are disrupted by uncertain tariffs, trade policies, and geopolitical tensions, the importance of the e-waste recycling market is becoming increasingly evident.
MP Materials' rare earth mining and processing facility in California's Mountain Pass MP Materials website
"The U.S. imports a large amount of electronics, which already contain gold, aluminum, and steel," said John Mitchell, president and CEO of the Global E-Waste Association. "We can definitely take this tariff as an opportunity to increase recycling of goods we don't have domestically and buy from other countries."
"We believe that large-scale mining is necessary to obtain the copper, gold, and other metals we need, but we also clearly understand that recycling will play a huge role," Sinha said.
Last week, as Trump announced a 50% tariff on imported copper, copper prices hit an all-time high. Currently, about half of the copper used in the U.S. is imported.
The report pointed out that it usually takes about thirty years for a new mine in the U.S. to go from discovery to operation, making copper recycling more attractive. According to estimates from energy data company Wood Mackenzie, by 2050, recycled copper will meet 45% of demand, while currently it accounts for about one-third.
The proliferation of e-waste can be traced back to the 1990s when the internet spurred the digital economy, leading to an exponential growth in electronic products. Afterward, the development of renewable energy, electric mobility, artificial intelligence, and data centers further accelerated this trend. As electronic devices continue to be updated, the amount of e-waste has also surged dramatically.
According to the latest estimates from the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), global e-waste production reached a record 620 million tons in 2022, an 82% increase from 2010. It is expected to rise to 820 million tons by 2030. The report noted that the U.S. generated nearly 80 million tons of e-waste in 2022, but only about 15% to 20% was properly recycled.
This ratio reveals the enormous potential for e-waste resource development. According to data from market research firm IBISWorld, the e-waste recycling industry generated $28.1 billion in revenue in 2024, and the sector is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of up to 8% in the future.
"We really see a lot of e-waste entering our warehouse," said Dave Daily, CEO of Full Circle Electronics, an American electronics recycling company. "I think this is related to some devices being replaced earlier than usual."
CNBC noted that what Daily referred to was that American consumers and businesses, in response to rising prices of electronics due to tariffs, chose to replace existing devices earlier rather than wait for the usual three-year update cycle.
Sinha said that many regions around the world have been lazy in handling e-waste, causing large amounts of waste to be shipped overseas. However, there is now a trend toward "localization" of e-waste, because people suddenly realize that the metals they wanted to seek from abroad are actually available domestically. Sinha added, "People are beginning to rethink global supply chains, considering them too long and needing to be more localized."
Some startups focus specifically on the recycling of certain types of e-waste. Recently, rare earths have attracted significant attention. CNBC noted that this is not only because U.S. electronics manufacturers have a large demand for rare earth elements, but also because the U.S. wants to reduce its reliance on China. China almost controls the entire process of rare earth mining, processing, and refining, including 90% of the global rare earth magnet production capacity.
In April this year, when the Trump administration imposed excessive tariffs on Chinese goods, China immediately retaliated by imposing export controls on seven categories of heavy rare earth elements and several magnets. This move led Ford to close factories due to shortages of rare earth magnets. According to reports, in mid-June, China issued temporary export licenses to some major U.S. automotive suppliers and specific companies for six months, but the volume of exports remained far below peak levels and there were noticeable delays.
The U.S. is increasing investment in its local rare earth production. In fact, before Trump returned to power, his predecessor Biden's administration had already provided $45 million to MP Materials. In April this year, the U.S. Department of the Interior approved Australia-based Dateline Resources to develop the Colosseum rare earth project located in the Mojave National Preserve in California.
At the same time, many recycling companies are extracting rare earth elements from e-waste. In April, Illumynt, a Massachusetts-based company providing IT asset disposition and data destruction services, announced the launch of a rare earth element recycling program. Western Digital, a hard drive manufacturer, also announced in April a collaboration with Microsoft and two resource recycling companies to extract rare earths and valuable elements such as copper, gold, aluminum, and steel from discarded drives.
According to reports, the Canadian startup Cyclic Materials has developed a technology to recover rare earths and other metals from electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, MRI machines, and e-waste from data centers. The company plans to invest over $20 million to build its first recycling plant in Mesa, Arizona, in the U.S.
Discarded lithium-ion batteries are another hot item for recycling, from which lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and aluminum can be extracted — elements essential for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries. All three major U.S. automakers have invested heavily in this area. However, CNBC pointed out that due to new federal spending legislation by the Trump administration, the production tax credit under Section 45X of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act may be cut, affecting related projects.
Sinha warned: "Don't put all your hopes on a single tax credit for a recycling company, because this might just be a fleeting benefit." He warned that investing in recycling companies also carries risks, as many startups have developed new technologies but lack sufficient commercial foundations. "Don't follow the crowd, but look at the fundamentals," Sinha said.
This article is an exclusive piece by Observer News, and without permission, it should not be reprinted.
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