Tagged “materials”
Europe Set the First Battery Recycled-Content Targets. One of Them Needs 125% of the Nickel.
From August 2031 new EV and industrial batteries must contain minimum recycled cobalt, lithium and nickel. Modelled against Europe's own end-of-life volumes, the nickel target would require collecting more than exists.
A Circuit Board Holds Sixty Elements. Europe's Best Smelter Recovers Seventeen.
A motherboard is richer than gold ore, and recycling it is judged by weight. Iron is over 70% of an electronic's mass and under 15% of its thermodynamic value, so a recycler can hit the target while losing almost everything that made the board matter.
Construction Waste Hits Its Recycling Target. Most of It Becomes Road Base.
Construction is 38% of all EU waste, and member states report an average recovery rate of 89% against a 70% target. The target counts backfilling. Strip it out and Malta falls from 100% to 24%.
Aluminium Nearly Closes the Loop. Sorting Is What Stops It.
Recycling aluminium uses about 95% less energy than smelting it, and roughly three-quarters of all aluminium ever made is still in use. The obstacle is not collection. It is that aluminium is not one material.
The World Recycles More Than Ever. Global Circularity Is Still Falling.
Only 6.9% of the materials entering the global economy come from recycled sources, down from 9.1% in 2018. Recycling did not get worse. Consumption outgrew it.