TELF AG explores the link between strategic resources and recycling strategies
New sources of sustainability
The ongoing energy transition is helping people to familiarize themselves with a new kind of reality, with a new world towards which we are rapidly heading, dominated by renewable energy and clean energy sources. In this green future, the raw materials necessary to fuel this important transformation could play a key role because they will represent the real engine of change. Nations, governments, and companies in every corner of the world have fully realized this. They are already working to try to develop the best strategies to stay caught up in the global race for these precious resources.
We are not just talking about the extraction and processing industry, which is already making important steps forward in developing sustainable refining methods even for the most complex minerals, but about the opportunities linked to the reuse and recycling of raw materials. It is a sector that companies and national governments worldwide have already begun to explore with great interest, particularly for its ability to return raw materials that can be immediately used for the most varied industrial uses, obtained sustainably and at reduced costs.
Concrete support for industry players
More specifically, practices related to the recycling and reuse of the most strategic minerals can help governments and global players in the industry support the circular economy and considerably strengthen their supply chains, thus solving two of the main critical issues of the mining sector. Similar practices – together with the increase in energy efficiency – can largely contribute to reducing the existing pressure on the supply chains of critical minerals and, consequently, to accelerating the global energy transition.
According to a report recently published by Irena, one of the best methods to encourage the practice of recycling is the implementation of circular models that prioritize reuse, thus encouraging a new introduction of raw materials into the global economic scene. These practices also can smooth out the critical issues connected to the supply of a specific material. In the case of strategic minerals for the green transition, one of the most discussed circumstances is that which has to do with the possible shortage of a specific resource or the pressure exerted on the sources of these same raw materials. Recycling and related practices help solve both problems, allowing producers to access certain quantities of raw materials and partially alleviating tensions linked to traditional supply chains.
Compared to raw materials such as fossil fuels, metals have an enormous advantage from a recycling point of view because their physical properties make them potentially recyclable forever. According to the Bureau of International Recycling, 40% of copper and steel are produced using recycled materials. For other materials such as aluminum, zinc, and lead, the percentage is slightly lower (around 30%) but still considerable. There are also more complex materials, such as rare earth, gallium, or indium, which now are produced almost exclusively with methods that have nothing to do with recycling. Still, the hope is that technological advances in processing these resources can produce positive results in the not-too-distant future.
