Committed to Connecting the World
Recycling rare metals
from ICT wastes
- Urban mining
Eunsook Kim (Eunah)
Dave Faulkner
WP3/5 Technical Session
WP3/5 Technical Session - Nov 25, 2010
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Committed to Connecting the World
Contents
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Introduction
Rare metals in ICT
Recycling of rare metals
Designing green standards for
recycling rare metals
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Waste Management with Smart ICT
 In the context of ICT, there is
 Industrial waste during production
 Waste due to obsolescence
 ICT producers are major consumers of
minerals, which has environmental and
economic implications
 The most commonly used metals in terms of volume are aluminium,
iron, copper, nickel, zinc and the lead in cathode ray tubes in
televisions and monitors.
 But other metals, only used in very small amounts, such as beryllium,
europium, indium, tantalum and the platinum group are essential for
today’s ICT
 Extraction and mining of these commodities, largely in
developing countries, is known to involve poor working
conditions and to create serious health and environmental
concerns
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Definitions of rare metals
 Definition 1: Rare metals are those
metals which are expensive or whose
price has increased dramatically
 Definition 2: Rare metals are metals
with a low current availability
 Definition 3: rare metals are metals
which are only extracted in a few
countries
Source: TEXTE, 23/07 ISSN 1862-4804, Rare metals: Measures and concepts for the solution of the
problem of conflict-aggravating raw material
extraction – the example of coltan
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Rare metals in ICT (1/4)
 A large number of rare metals are used in
ICT products
 A tonne of cell phones contains more gold
than a tonne of ore from a typical gold
mine.
 An average gold mine produces 5 grams of gold per
tonne of rock
 whereas cell phones contain 150 grams per tonne or
more.
 In addition, 100 kilograms of copper and 3 kilograms of
silver, as well as other valuable metals—all of which
have been soaring in price.
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Rare metals in ICT (2/4)
 Rare metals in a mobile phone
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Rare Metals in ICT (3/4)
 Selected rare metals in ICT goods and manufacturing
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Source: OECD, based on Angerer et al., 2009; Steinweg & de Haan, 2007; USGS, 2009
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Rare metals in ICT (4/4)
 Rare metals are essential not only in existing ICT products
but also in emerging new ones such as electric vehicles
 ICTs are used for control systems, sensors, instrument panels, etc.
 Benefits of ‘Green car’
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Low emission
High energy efficiency
Smart/active driving
Luxury
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Recycling of rare metals (1/5)
 Urban mining:
The process of reclaiming compounds
and elements from products, buildings and waste
Disused cell phones, LCD
television and computers
contain valuable rare earths,
such as neodymium, which
are in high demand,
especially for hybrid
vehicles.
For example, each Toyota
Prius requires approximately
2.2 pounds of neodymium.
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Recycling of rare metals (2/5)
 Urban mining (cont’d)
Sources:
http://electronicrecyclers.com/urban-mining.aspx
http://www.ban.org/main/about_BAN.html
http://www.ifat.de/link/en/23890451
Recently the Japanese government
launched an advertising campaign that
included prizes offered, to get their
citizens to recycle their unused cell
phones.
Over a half million were collected in
100 days, enough to yield close to
- 50 pounds of gold
- 175 pounds of silver
- 2 pounds of palladium and
- over 5 tons (10,000 pounds!) of
copper
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Recycling of rare metals (3/5)
Source: urbanmining.org
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Recycling of rare metals (4/5)
 A typical example of urban mining
Figure source: L.rareMetals
For efficient ‘collecting’ and ‘recycling’,
related information from ‘production stage’ will give huge benefits for recycling rare metals
To harness the potential of urban mines, manufacturers are seeking to
reintegrate used products and their components into the production cycle
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Recycling of rare metals (5/5)
 A ‘cradle to cradle’ raw material and recycling
approach aims to keep all the materials in
circulation [1]
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Design includes easy disassembly
Obsolete products returned to factory
No need for mining of raw materials
Reducing unstable supply of rare metals
[1] “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things” [Paperback] William McDonough
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste
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Design for recycling rare metals
 Make it easy to disassemble products
 Keep all materials in constant circulation
(a closed loop system)
 Avoid the need to extract raw materials by
mining which is highly energy intensive,
especially for electronics
 Ensure a sustainable supply of scarce
resources
 Requires complete knowledge of the supply
chain and raw materials used
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008WP3/5 Technical Session - Nov 25, 2010
08/29/content_9736158.htm
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L.rareMetals
 WP3 of SG5 is working on
 L.rareMetals, draft Recommendation of
a method to provide recycling information of
rare metals in ICT products
 Scope
 necessity and importance of rare metal recycling
 recycling procedure for rare metals
 communication format for providing recycling
information of rare metals in ICT products
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Benefits of Standards
 Focus Requirements
 Drive up volumes for competitive supply
 Reduce cost
 Reduce risks (e.g stranded assets)
 Any GHG savings can be multiplied worldwide
across the whole industry
 Can be used in procurement to help specify what
is required
 Ensuring you are not asking for an expensive ‘special’
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Committed to Connecting the World
Benefits of ‘Green’ Standards
 Provides purchasers with a readily available tool for
sustainable procurement
 No need to start from scratch
 Examples of international standards bodies in this area
 WRI, ISO, ITU-T, ETSI, EPEAT/IEEE
 Makes (sustainability)
requirements universal
 Drives down cost
 Reduces risk
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Rare Metal Recycling and
Global Warming
 Recycling and reprocessing reduces the fossil fuel
energy needed to build a new product
 A closed loop system is needed then
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Quantity of raw materials needed in a product is reduced
Mining energy is reduced
Embodiment energy is reduced
CO2 emissions are reduced
 More studies/contributions are needed in this
area
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Committed to Connecting the World
Your contributions are invited.
Thanks!
eunah@etri.re.kr
davewfaulkner@googlemail.com
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