Aligning with Recycling as a Strategy for Reliable Critical Metals Supply

The processing and reprocessing of secondary materials is one of the key strategies to secure the supply of critical and energy transition metals in the U.S. Mine waste and end-of-life electronic and electric equipment are widely accepted as important sources of these critical metals. Black mass from waste batteries and printed circuit boards from electronic waste are examples of materials that have received significant attention from research and industry, looking at gainfully recycling key metals. Considering that electronic waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams, and contains critical metals whose primary sources are geographically concentrated, it makes sense to view this waste stream as an “urban mine”, non-geographically bound but enabled and limited by its own challenges. Recycling of these critical materials bearing waste fractions faces challenges relating to policy, recycling technologies and logistics among others. This talk will explore the technological, socioeconomic, and institutional factors affecting the development of a robust electronic waste recycling industry using critical metals-rich fractions (batteries and printed circuit boards) as a case study. We ask questions like; how does the categorization of these waste fractions as hazardous waste impact their recycling, how do policies such as the Extended producer responsibility (EPR) support the development of this industry, and what policy shifts, if any, support the Federal strategy (Executive order 14017) to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals through recycling and reprocessing?
Thandalize Moyo joined the Energy and Mineral Engineering Department at Penn State as an Assistant Professor in 2023. Thandie is a chemical engineer by training with much of her research focused on flowsheet design and testing to recover target metals from secondary resources and low-grade primary ores. She is interested in the responsible development of these metal-bearing resources and looks beyond the technical, to understand the socio-environmental implications of their development and understand how policy shifts align with circular economy principles.