Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Supply and demand of some critical metals and present status of their
recycling in WEEE
Shengen Zhang a,⇑, Yunji Ding a, Bo Liu a, Chein-chi Chang b
a
Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China
b
Department of Engineering and Technical Services, District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, Washington, DC 20032, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: New development and technological innovations make electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) more
Received 13 December 2016 functional by using an increasing number of metals, particularly the critical metals (e.g. rare and precious
Revised 30 March 2017 metals) with specialized properties. As millions of people in emerging economies adopt a modern life-
Accepted 2 April 2017
style, the demand for critical metals is soaring. However, the increasing demand causes the crisis of their
Available online 12 April 2017
supply because of their simple deficiency in the Earth’s crust or geopolitical constraints which might cre-
ate political issues for their supply. This paper focuses on the sustainable supply of typical critical metals
Keywords:
(indium, rare earth elements (REEs), lithium, cobalt and precious metals) through recycling waste elec-
WEEE
Critical metals
trical and electronic equipment (WEEE). To illuminate this issue, the production, consumption, expected
Supply and demand future demand, current recycling situation of critical metals, WEEE management and their recycling have
Waste management been reviewed. We find that the demand of indium, REEs, lithium and cobalt in EEE will continuously
Recycling increasing, while precious metals are decreasing because of new substitutions with less or even without
precious metals. Although the generation of WEEE in 2014 was about 41.9 million tons (Mt), just about
15% (6.5 Mt) was treated environmentally. The inefficient collection of WEEE is the main obstacle to
relieving the supply risk of critical metals. Furthermore, due to the widespread use in low concentrations,
such as indium, their recycling is not just technological problem, but economic feasibility is. Finally, rel-
evant recommendations are point out to address these issues.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
2. Output, consumption and future demand of critical metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
2.1. Output and consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
2.1.1. Indium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
2.1.2. Rare earth elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
2.1.3. Precious metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
2.1.4. Lithium and cobalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
2.2. The future demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
2.2.1. Indium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
2.2.2. Rare earth elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
2.2.3. Precious metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
2.2.4. Lithium and cobalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
3. WEEE generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4. WEEE management and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.1. WEEE management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.2. Future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5. Critical metals recycling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: zhangshengen@mater.ustb.edu.cn (S. Zhang), liubo@ustb.edu.cn (B. Liu).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.04.003
0956-053X/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
114 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127

5.1. Indium recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

5.2. Rees recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.3. Precious metals recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.4. Lithium and cobalt recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6. Conclusion and recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

1. Introduction
Metals play a significant role in electronics for their unique
physical and chemical properties (Eggert, 2011). The growth of
technological innovation makes electrical and electronic equip-
ment (EEE) more functional and intelligent by using an increasing
number of metals from the periodic table (Reck and Graedel, 2012).
For instance, computer chips were made with 12 elements in the
1980s, but today, as many as 60 different elements are used
(Bloodworth, 2014). As a consequence, EEE is considered as highly
heterogeneous mixed materials, comprising precious metals in
printed circuit boards (PCBs), lithium and cobalt in rechargeable
batteries, indium in LCD displays, etc. Table 1 lists the typical
metals used in EEE.
During the past decades, a huge upsurge in the consumption of
high-tech products has resulted from the rapid technological pro-
gress (Izatt et al., 2014). These EEE are becoming indispensable
due to the effects of affluence and population growth. According
to the statistics of Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP), the total
amount of EEE put on the market in 2012 was about 56.5 million
tons (Mt) (StEP, 2015). The demand of EEE in the future is still
increasing as millions of people in emerging economies are aspir-
ing to the modern lifestyle. Based on the precise specifications
required in certain applications of EEE, several typical critical
metals (indium, rare earth elements, precious metals, lithium and
cobalt) are widely consumed in electronics. More than 80% of
indium is used in LCDs in the latest years, and about 35% of lithium
and 40% of cobalt for the Li-batteries production (USGS, 2015).
Except for huge demand of critical metals, their deficiency in
the Earth’s crust as well as existence in a few regions lead to the
Table 1
Main uses of several metals in EEE.
Critical metals Main uses in EEE
Palladium (Pd) Multilayer capacitors (MLCC), connectors, PWB plating, etc.
Platinum (Pt) Hard disks, resistors, conductive, plasma display panels
Gold (Au) Bonding wire, contacts, PCBs, integrated circuit (IC)
Silver (Ag) Contacts, switches, (lead-free) solders, conductors, MLCC, etc.
REE Permanent magnet, battery alloy, phosphors, etc.
Cobalt (Co) Rechargeable batteries
Lithium (Li) Rechargeable batteries
Indium (In) LCD glasses, (lead-free) solders, semiconductors/LED, etc.
serious depletion and supply risks in the future. For example, pri-
mary indium production was only 755 tons worldwide. China
has been providing 85–95% of the world’s REEs since 1990, while
72% of global cobalt comes from the Congo and 56% of lithium from
Chile (USUG, 2015). To address the supply problem, the most rea-
sonable method is to increase the recycling efficiency of secondary
resources. Generally, concerning the recycling of critical metals,
two major fields should be taken into consideration: production
scraps of manufacturing process (called new scraps) and end-of-
life products. In the most cases new scraps recycling is much easier
comparing with WEEE. The main advantages are higher concentra-
tions of the metal in new scraps, well-known and definited source
of waste generation, and continuous new scrap formation (Buchert
et al., 2009). Currently, new scraps are the main source for recy-
cling critical metals. For example, indium is mainly recycled from
wastes ITO (indium-tin oxides) targets. However, when it comes
to the recycling of electronics waste, the situation is not that opti-
mistic as the new scraps.
Undoubtedly, WEEE is the potential resource of critical metals.
According to Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science, there
are 6800 tons of gold (16% of the world reserves), 60,000 tons of
silver (22%) and 1700 tons of indium (15.5%) in Japanese urban
mines (NIMS, 2015). In 2015, the total amount of WEEE generation
was about 43.9 million tons (Baldé et al., 2015). Their recycling has
an active effect on reducing supply risks by lowering the pressure
on mining of virgin ores (Prakash et al., 2010). Nevertheless, WEEE
recycling requires a well-organized and dedicated process chain
that involves different stakeholders. Fig. 1 shows how the metal
recycling can potentially relieve the EEE demand, indicating that
WEEE recycling efficiency is the multiplication of collection, dis-
mantling, pre-processing and recovery rate. For instance, if the col-
lection rate of WEEE, dismantling rate, pre-treatment efficiency
and the metal recovery rates are 80%, 90%, 80% and 90%, respec-
tively, the target metal recycling rate is only 51.84%. Assuming that
a minimum of 50% of metal recycled from WEEE can reduce supply
risk of critical metals, then a high recycling rate of each step is
essential. However, the collection rate is always far from satisfac-
tion. In 2014, only about 15% of global WEEE was formally treated
despite the fact that many countries and areas have issued relevant
laws and legislation to establish matured collection system (Baldé
et al., 2015; Ongondo et al., 2011). In EU, only 25–40% of WEEE is
treated in the official system, and the rest is discarded into

R1 R2 R3 R4 = R

Endoflife
Dismantli Pre- Recycled metals
EEE WEEE Collection Recovery
ng processing

Separated components and fractions

Fig. 1. The potential recycling process chain of WEEE.

 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
municipal waste or exported to developing countries (Reck and
Graedel, 2012). Even though there are advanced technologies in
some developed countries, the low collection rate drops the metal
recycling efficiency. And in developing countries, most WEEE is
handled in the informal recycling system (Sthiannopkao and
Wong, 2013) and treated by crude processes, such as open burning
or acid leaching, resulting in metals loss and serious environmental
problems (Rocchetti et al., 2013; Sepúlveda et al., 2010). It was
estimated that more than 80% of cobalt and nearly all the REEs
were lost during the batteries recycling (Sommer et al., 2015).
Apart from collection problem, techno-economic problem also
exists in recycling critical metals from WEEE. The main reason is
that the critical metals are in low concentration in WEEE or they
are just a minor composition in a complex material matrix. Some-
times technologies are not the problem, but economic feasibility is.
For example, there are various methods to recover indium from
waste LCDs (Ferella et al., 2016; Silveira et al., 2015), but few
indium is recycled from waste LCDs in industry. Waste fluorescent
lamps recycling is facing the similar situation. WEEE is one kind of
complicated and diverse material, and the recovery of certain met-
als is usually not economically viable. It requires state-of-the-art
operations which can co-recover a number of metals (lead, tin,
nickel, copper, antimony, cobalt, precious metals, etc.). For exam-
ple, seventeen kinds of elements are recovered with high yields
by the integrated smelters in Umicore.
To evaluate the sustainable supply of typical critical metals,
including indium, rare earth elements, precious metals (gold and
PGMs), lithium and cobalt, this article reviews the output of critical
metals in the 1994–2014, their consumption and future demand in
EEE, and their potential recycling from WEEE. To illustrate their
potential recycling, the global WEEE management and recycling,
current recycling situation and future tendency are also summa-
rized. Finally, relevant recommendations are proposed to raise
the metal recycling rates.
2. Output, consumption and future demand of critical metals
As a consequence of improving precise technological levels,
critical metals are increasingly used but always in small quantities
in per application. It means that more and more critical metals will
be stored in these products. In 2014, the consumption of critical
metals (palladium, platinum, gold, silver, REE, cobalt, lithium,
indium) in EEE ranged from 3.65% to 218% of the total mine pro-
duction, as shown in Fig. 2. The usage of indium was over 100%
because of the recycling of scraps from sputtering process. The
consumptions in EEE of silver, REE, cobalt and lithium were about
one third of world mine production. Precious metals were about
10%, which was also a large demand. Studies have shown that if
the annual consumption of certain metals used for the production
of EEE is over 10%, recycling can contribute in a great way to relieve
the supply risk (Bakas et al., 2014).
Owing to the geological reserves and geopolitical constraints,
some critical metals are facing serious supply risks (Eggert,
2011). The insecure supplies of some critical metals could hinder
the development and deployment of new technology. Hence,
achieving the sustainable supply of critical metals in WEEE is of
great significance (Hassini et al., 2012). In this section, the output
(from metal ore) and current consumption, future demand of the
critical metals have been summarized.
2.1. Output and consumption
2.1.1. Indium
ITO are composed of In2O3 (90–95%) and SnO2 (5–10%). They are
widely used as transparent conductive films in LCDs due to their
115
Palladium 14%
Platinum 3.65%
Gold 9.70%
Silver 42%
REE 30%
Cobalt 37%
Lithium 31%
Induim 218%
0% 50% 100% 150% 200% 250%
Critical metals demand in EEE relative to mine production
Fig. 2. EEE demand of critical metals relative to world mine production in 2014
(Date from: USGS-Commodity Statistics and Information).
adequate electrical conductivity and optical transparency. Produc-
tion of ITO is leading indium consumption. ITO production
accounts for more than 80% of the global indium consumption
(Zeng et al., 2015). Fig. 3 shows the global annual production of
indium in 1994–2014 (USGS/Indium, 2015). The production of
indium increased from 149 tons to 819 tons in twenty years.
Moreover, the growth of indium consumption has boomed since
the year 2004 because LCDs started to replace CRTs.
In 2014, there were 6.3 Mt of screens and 3 Mt of small devices
with screens, such as mobile phones, calculators, and personal
computers became obsolete (Baldé et al., 2015). Waste screens
are one of important parts of WEEE. Because of the small volume,
light weight and low power consumption, LCDs have replaced
cathode ray tube (CRT) displays in most appliances. LCD is the
leading technology in flat panel display production, which
accounts for almost all cell phones, computers and 87.3% of TV
(Display Search, 2013). Besides, the increase in demand for digital
products, such as smart phones, tablet PCs and digital TVs, drives
the flat panel display consumption. Taking into account of
2–5 years’ life-cycle and endless demand for new ones, large quan-
tities of LCD products are coming into discarding period.
However, the global reserve of indium is about 16–19 thousand
tons. The reserve is only 1/6 of gold (Yang et al., 2013). Based on
the available quantities of ore from zinc ore and the high consump-
tion in LCD, reserves of indium in the Earth’s crust could be
depleted by 2020. Therefore, how to realize the sustainable supply
of indium is challenging.
Fig. 3. The global annual production of indium from mineral in 1994–2014 (Data
sources: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/indium/).
116 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127

Fig. 4. World indium refinery production (tons) per country from 1994 to 2014
(Data sources: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/indium/).

Indium is also critical because of the geopolitical constraints.

Fig. 4 depicts the per-country production of refined indium since
1994 (USGS/Indium, 2015). It indicates that global indium produc-
tion is dominated in some Asian countries, which account for
70–80% of global production in the latest decade. As mentioned
above, indium is always associated with zinc and lead ores. The
indium production is consistent with the base-metal production
capacity. China produces approximately one-quarter of global lead
and one-third of global zinc production (BREE, 2013; Canberra,
2014). As a result, China produces around 50% of global indium
since 2005. Chinese government interventions on restricting
indium exports in the early 2000 (Schwarz-Schampera, 2014) have
caused concerns in the EU, USA, UK, Japan and Korea over the
supply reliability. The feasible solutions are to make full use of
waste LCD screens and find ITO substitutes to reduce indium
consumption.
2.1.2. Rare earth elements
The REEs are a moderately abundant group of 17 elements com-
prising the 15 lanthanides, scandium, and yttrium. REEs are key
components in almost all technology products, ranging from
smartphones and flat screen TVs to all sorts of electric motors,
nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, high performance metal
alloys and even automotive catalysts. The usage of REEs is shown
in Table 2 (Binnemans et al., 2013a). The neodymium magnets
cover about 20% of the total demand for REEs. Around 35% of neo-
dymium magnets are used in hard disk devices, namely around
1700 tons of neodymium were embedded in hard disks in comput-
ers sold in 2008 (Öko-Institute, 2011).
Along with the rapid development of electronic industry, the
demand of REEs is increasing dramatically. The global annual
mining production of REEs is presented in Fig. 5 (USGS/Rare
earths, 2015). The production of REEs boomed from 64.5 ktons to
133 ktons from 1994 to 2014. Although REEs are widely dis-
tributed geographically, they are mainly mined, concentrated,
Fig. 5. The global annual mining production of rare earth oxides from 1994 through
2014 (Date sources: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/rare_
earths/).
and separated in China. Since the late 1990s, China has provided
more than 90% of the world’s REEs (Lim, 2015), which is critical
to the world’s REEs supply. World mining production of REEs grew
rapidly (around 7% annually) from 1994 through 2005 before
decreasing in 2006. Due to the global economic crisis, the produc-
tion increased at a slower pace from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, China
has restricted the supply of REEs through quotas, licenses, and
taxes for retaining their limited REE resources for domestic use
and concerns for environmental effects of mining. Consequently,
the production decreased dramatically. However, after losing the
World Trade Organization case on exports of REEs, China eases
export controls and the production tends to be stable.
From 1999 to 2014, China’s production of rare earths increased
from 65 ktons to 130 ktons. China’s consumption had reached
52 ktons in 2005, and by 2009, it was 73 ktons, about 380% higher
than that in 2000. The production and consumption data after 2009
suggested that consumption of REEs by the rest of the world has
decreased to 50 ktons. It indicates that other countries have high
supply risk of REEs. Moreover, in June 2015, Molycorp, the US’ only
producer of REEs, has filed bankruptcy (Molycorp, 2015). Conse-
quently, the supply of REEs becomes more scarce, which aggra-
vates the shortage risk in other consuming countries.
Worse still, the reserve of the REEs is not in balance. The general
trend is that the elements become scarcer with the increasing
atomic number and the elements with an even atomic number
are more abundant than elements with an odd atomic number
(Oddo-Harkins rule). For example, the reserve of cerium is much
higher than heavy REEs like dysprosium, europium and terbium.
Because of technological evolutions in applications, the usage of
REEs is often not in balance. The result is sometimes a very high
demand of a REE with lower concentration in the ore (such as

Table 2
REEs average usage by application (Binnemans et al., 2013a).

Application La Ce Pr Nd Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Y Other
Magnets 23.4 69.4 2 0.2 5
Battery alloys 50 33.4 3.3 10 3.3
Phosphors 8.5 11 4.9 1.8 4.6 69.2
Metallurgy 26 52 5.5 16.5
Catalysts 5 90 2 3
Polishing powders 31.5 65 3.5
Glass additives 24 66 1 3 2 4
Ceramics 17 12 6 12 53
Others 19 39 4 15 2 1 19
 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
dysprosium), but the demand of abundant REEs (such as yttrium)
is relatively much lower (Binnemans et al., 2013b). The balance
between the demand by the consumption and the natural abun-
dance of the REEs in ores is a major problem. An ideal situation
is the perfect balance between the demand and supply of all REEs.
The balance problem indicates that the rare earth industry has to
find new materials for REEs that are available in excess or to search
for substitutions for REEs that have supply risk. For example, the
less expensive and more abundant lanthanum and cerium are
being used to partly replace praseodymium and neodymium in
NdFeB magnets (Zhang et al., 2015a).
2.1.3. Precious metals
Commonly, precious metals include gold, silver and the plat-
inum group metals (PGMs). The PGMs are a group of six metals,
including ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and
platinum. These metals have similar physical and chemical proper-
ties. Their properties, such as good electrical conductivity, high
melting point and corrosion resistance make them indispensable
for many industrial applications (Zientek and Loferski, 2014). In
the electronics industry, precious metals components can increase
storage capacity in computer hard disk drives. They are ubiquitous
in electronic devices, multilayer ceramic capacitors and hybridized
integrated circuits (Ninlawan et al., 2010). The average weight of
precious metals in typical electronic products (mg per unit) is
shown in Table 3.
Gold is predominantly utilized for jewelry and arts, accounting
for 75–89% from the year 2000 to 2012. However, due to its con-
ductivity, the consumption of gold in electronic products has
increased from 4% in 2000 to 6% in 2012 (Amey, 2000; George,
2015). In recent years, the usage of gold in electronic industry is
decreasing as a result of new technologies. Gold consumption var-
ies by country. For example, it was estimated that 35% of gold was
used in EEE in United States, which is much more than the global
level (USGS/Gold, 2015b). Among the consumption in EEE, mobile
phones and desktop computers amounted to almost 40%, and large
high-grade equipment like laptops and DVD players amounted to
29% of gold (Chancerel et al., 2009). In EEE, gold is mainly used
in PCBs and especially in the semiconductor industry as
germanium-gold alloy to evaporate contacts. It is utilized as con-
nectors, switch and relay contacts, soldered joints, connecting
wires and connection strips (Bakas et al., 2014).
Gold production in the major countries is shown in Fig. 6 (USGS/
Gold, 2015a). The global production of gold increased from 2260
tons to 2860 tons in the latest twenty years. In 2014, the twelve
leading gold-producing countries were China, Australia, United
States, Russia, Peru, South Africa, Canada, Mexico, Uzbekistan,
Ghana, Colombia, and Brazil, accounting for 72% of global produc-
tion. The next twelve countries accounted for about 18%. Among
the leading production countries, China has replaced South Africa
as the first leading producer in 2007.
Compared with gold production, the PGMs was mainly mined in
ore deposits in South Africa, Russia, Zimbabwe, Canada and the US.
In 2014, world mining production of PGMs was 393 tons. South
Table 3
The average weight of precious metals in typical electronic products (mg per unit) (Bakas et al., 2016.).
PM (mg/unit) Mobile phone PC
Range AC Range
Ag 232–319 261 1348–11,408
Au 24.1–29 26.1 – 92.7
Pd 8.7–14.5 11.6 – 39.9
AC: average contents, PM: precious metals.
117
Fig. 6. World gold production (tons) per country from 1994 to 2014 (Data sources:
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gold/).
Africa, Russia, Zimbabwe, Canada and United States accounted
for 48%, 30%, 7%, 7% and 4%, respectively, of total global PGMs pro-
duction in 2014. South Africa produced 94 tons of platinum and 60
tons of palladium in 2014, which accounted for 64% and 30% of the
world platinum and palladium production. Moreover, South Africa
was also the dominant producer of other PGMs, contributing 78%
of the global production.
The demand for PGMs is led by the auto-catalyst industry.
PGMs are also used in the glass industry, jewelry, chemical indus-
try and in the electronics industry. In 2014, about 65% of palladium
was used by the auto-catalyst industry, and 14% in the EEE (USGS/
PGMs, 2015). Consumption of palladium in the electronic industry
was 38.8 tons, slightly more than that of 2013 and the highest level
since 2000. The major demand for palladium is for multilayer cera-
mic capacitors (MLCCs). However, the consumption of palladium
was decreasing owing to substitution by nickel and copper (Kim,
2013).
For platinum, about 45% of the total was utilized by the auto-
catalyst industry. Owing to lower demand for hard disk drives,
the total consumption of platinum in electronic applications was
about 5.85 tons in 2014, which was slightly less than that of
2013. About 95% of electronics consumption of platinum comes
from hard disks. But new materials that do not need PGMs are
applied in hard disks (Johnson, 2013). The consumption of plat-
inum in EEE will decrease in the future.
Global rhodium consumption in 2014 was 30.5 tons and 84% of
rhodium was used in the production of auto-catalysts. Only 1.36
tons was used in EEE. Global consumption of ruthenium was
26.8 tons in 2014. There were 11.5 tons of ruthenium applied in
EEE. Due to the change in consumer technology preference to
tablets and smartphones from desktop and laptop computers, the
consumption of ruthenium declined in the hard disk industry. As
a result, there was 21% decrease of ruthenium consumption in
EEE compared with 2013. Global consumption of iridium was 6.1
tons in 2014, which was 5% more than in 2013. As a result of
decreased demand for iridium crucibles, which are used in the
electronic industry to grow high-purity single crystal sapphire,
Flat screen or TV Laptop
monitor
AC Range AC Range AC
6378 450–575 515 249–437 343
110–200 161 104.5–219.8 160.8
40–44 42 – 40.2
118 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
the use in electrical sector decreased by 78% to 1.3 tons compared
with that in 2011 (Johnson, 2013).
In general, the usage of precious metals has decreased per
product due to the new substitutions with less or even without
precious metals. For example, copper wire bonding have been
replacing gold in semiconductor packaging industry (Chylak
et al., 2012). The substitutions are of benefit to reduce the supply
risk of precious metals. However, the amount of electronics
increases sharply in the latest decades, and supply of precious met-
als is still with high risk. More substitutions with lower supply risk
are required.
2.1.4. Lithium and cobalt
Lithium’s low atomic mass, low coefficient of thermal expan-
sion, high electrochemical reactivity, and other unique properties
resulted in the application of many commercial lithium products.
Lithium’s properties make it to be one of the most attractive
battery materials. LiCoO2 is the preferred materials, and LiNiO2,
LiMn2O4 and LiFePO4 can also be used. Due to their high energy
density, long lifespan and light weight, lithium batteries
(Li-batteries) lead the demand in electronic devices and electric
vehicles, making up 60% of the total portable battery sales and
37% of the total battery sales (Battery University, 2011).
Lithium and cobalt are found in only a few places, leading to
political issues for their supply. Australia and Chile have long
accounted for more than 70% of worldwide lithium production,
while Congo accounted for about 50% of global cobalt production.
Figs. 7 and 8 show the world mining production of lithium and
cobalt between 1994 and 2014 (USGS/Lithium, 2015; USGS/
Cobalt, 2015).
For lithium, the global mining production has increased rapidly
since 1990s. World lithium production in 2014 was estimated to be
36,000 tons. Most of the known suppliers of lithium are Bolivia,
Argentina, Chile, Australia and China. Li-batteries are the largest
growing area for lithium consumption. The demand for
Li-batteries exceeds that of other rechargeable batteries. Lithium
use in rechargeable batteries increased from zero in 1991 to 80%
of the market share in 2012. Since in 1992 the Ni-Cd and NiMH
batteries have been replaced for the first time (Goonan, 2012).
The greater charge-to-density ratio of lithium has helped to drive
this trend. The average production rate of lithium is increasing
around 9% annually. And between 2010 and 2013, the annual
growth of Li-battery produced globally was about 16% (Tesla
Motors, Inc., 2013). China is the leading consumer of lithium with
35% of the total world consumption. Lithium consumption in China
Fig. 7. World mining production of lithium from 1994 through 2014 (Data are from
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/lithium/).
Fig. 8. World mining production of cobalt from 1994 through 2014 (Data sources:
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cobalt/).
has grown at a rate of 11.4% per year since 2002. Europe, Japan, the
Republic of Korea, and North America accounted for 24%, 12%, 10%,
and 9% of the world consumption, respectively (Roskill Information
Services Ltd., 2013).
On a global view, the leading use of cobalt is in rechargeable
battery electrodes. In 2013, rechargeable batteries accounted for
about 41% of the worldwide cobalt demand. The proportion of
cobalt used in batteries is expected to increase in the future. As
shown in Fig. 8, the world cobalt mining and refinery production
increased from 18,500 tons to 112,000 tons.
Over the past decades, there are two major changes in cobalt
consumption. The first one is that the demand of cobalt has shifted
from the United States and Europe to Asia. The consumption in
Asia has increased significantly since 2002, whereas the demand
in the United States and Europe has remained relatively steady.
For instance, China consumed 31,700 tons of cobalt in 2012, of
which two-thirds was used in rechargeable batteries (Wu, 2013).
The other one is the increase in consumption resulted largely from
rechargeable batteries. Increasing consumption for rechargeable
batteries is forecasted to result in increases in cobalt consumption
of about 6% per year from 2013 through 2017 (Shedd, 2014).
2.2. The future demand
2.2.1. Indium
With advances in display technology, LCDs are widely used in
our life, not only the typical appliances like TV, mobile phones,
computers, but also the intelligent household appliances. As a
result, the demand for indium will be tremendous. It is estimated
that the total demand of indium in China will be up to approxi-
mately 350 tons in 2035, while in 2014 the demand is 180 tons
(Wang et al., 2015). In the field of display technologies, new appli-
cations could push further demand for ITO products. Organic light
emitting diodes (OLED) is a sandwiched structure that the organic
layers are between a reflective metallic cathode and a transparent
anode (ITO) layer (Riedel et al., 2016). Advantages of OLED are a
higher flexibility and power efficiency. OLED are regarded as highly
innovative and marked as next generation of flat panel displays
(Nakanotani et al., 2014). OLED will be another growth point of
indium consumption. These factors demonstrate possible impacts
to the arising consumption of indium in the future. Indium produc-
tion is clearly evident in linear growth over the last 20 years. By
2030, annual production of primary indium is very likely to exceed
1500 tons per year.
 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127 119

2.2.2. Rare earth elements
In the future, the growth in the consumption of REEs will be
sustainable in the theory. It is estimated that the total demand
for REEs will grow over 50% until 2020 (UNEP, 2009). REEs are
advantageous in many applications because of the environmental
factors. For example, rechargeable lanthanum-nickel-hydride
(La-Ni-H) batteries are gradually replacing Ni-Cd batteries in
electronic applications and could even replace lead-acid batteries
in automobiles eventually (Han et al., 2014). La-Ni-H batteries offer
greater energy density, better charge-discharge characteristics, and
fewer environmental problems upon disposal or recycling (Gordon
et al., 2015). Permanent magnets containing Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, or Pr
have allowed miniaturization of numerous electrical and electronic
components used in appliances (Dospial et al., 2012; Du and
Graedel, 2011). Many recent technological innovations (such as
portable disk drives, DVD drives) would not be possible without
REE magnets. The next high-tech application of the REEs may be
magnetic refrigeration (Hooper et al., 2012; Lorusso et al., 2013).
The REE ions Gd3+ through Tm3+ have large magnetic moments
for their unpaired electrons. Gd5(Si2Ge2), a new developed mate-
rial, with a ‘‘giant magnetocaloric effect” at room temperature
may allow magnetic refrigeration to become commercial (Wang
et al., 2010; Zhong et al., 2013). This new technology could be
employed in refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners. Magnetic
refrigeration is considerably more efficient than gas-compression
refrigeration. It is much more environmentally friendly because
traditional refrigerants are not only toxic, but also can deplete
the Earth’s ozone layer and contribute to global warming.
Historically, the production of REE has grown rapidly to meet
the upsurge in demand. World production growth rate was about
5% between 1994 and 2014. Annual growth rates in recent years
have been slowed down since Chinese government has restricted
its REE exports. The average annual growth rate is estimated to
be 3.7% to 8.6% in the next twenty years (Alonso et al., 2012).
The higher growth rate considers the upcoming markets for man-
ifold new applications. The scenario is supported by evaluations of
specific applications growth. The growth rates for the demand in
magnets, metal alloys, catalysts, polishing glass, phosphors, ceram-
ics, and others are estimated at 12.5%, 10%, 4%, 10%, 0, 4.5%, 6%, 6%,
respectively (Alonso et al., 2012).
2.2.3. Precious metals
Precious metals have shown an almost continuous increase of
the global demand in electronic industry since 1980, especially
the PGMs. In recent years, however, although the electronic appli-
ances are increasing, the usage of precious metals in each appli-
ance has decreased with technological advance. For instance, the
platinum demand in EEE refers to be 6.54 tons in 2014 and 40.4
tons in 2000. Table 4 shows the consumption of precious metals
in EEE during 2005–2014 (USGS/PGMs, 2015). Obviously, for elec-
tronics, the precious metals demand decreased continuously in
2010–2015. In the future, consumption of precious metals by the
electronics industry will continually decrease with the develop-
ment of substitute materials and functional materials with better
performances.

Table 4
The consumption of precious metals in EEE during 2005–2014 (tons) (USGS/Gold & PGMs, 2015).

Year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Gold 277 302 311 293 246 327 320 285 279 279
Platinum 11 13.3 13.2 7 5.9 6.84 7.15 5.13 5.88 5.85
Palladium 30 33 40 41.2 39.5 43.9 42.9 37.3 38.2 38.8

Fig. 9. The evaluation of Li-batteries demand in 2010–2020 (Date from: China battery website. http://www.itdcw.com/news/top/102151H32015.html).
120 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
2.2.4. Lithium and cobalt
Li-batteries continue to have the greatest potential growth in
the future due to the new application in vehicles. By 2020, the pre-
dicted annual production of electric vehicles (EV) is at least 5 mil-
lion units. The demand of Li-batteries in vehicle transportation
applications is expected to increase by 20% per year through
2020 (Sonoc and Jeswiet, 2014). Due to the tremendous demand
in EV, the demand proportion of Li-batteries in EEE decreases from
80.0% in 2011 to 55.7% in 2015, and it is expected to continuously
fall to 30.5% by 2020 (CBW, 2015). Meanwhile, the demand propor-
tion of Li-batteries in EV increases from 11.0% in 2011 to 47.0% in
2020.
Fig. 9 presents the Li-batteries demand in the year 2010–2020
(CBW, 2015). In 2015, there has been nearly a fourfold rise in the
global Li-batteries demand since 2010. The electricity storage of
Li-batteries increases from 21.5 to 79.21 MkW h with a growth rate
over 30%. Moreover, the demand continues to rise and reaches to
200.359 MkW h by the year 2020. It indicates the raw materials
for the manufacture of Li-batteries will increase sharply. Compared
to 2014, the future demand of lithium and cobalt will have a three-
fold increase in the year 2020.
For now, the supply is abundant but concerns of global short-
ages are rising. However, if there are no other materials that
could replace lithium and cobalt, nor are battery systems in
development that offer similar or better performance as
Li-battery, serious shortages of such metals could emerge since
the production of millions of batteries for vehicles and electron-
ics. Also, cobalt is expensive and scarce. If it is required in high
volume, global shortage would be caused. To relieve the global
shortages, the ideal method is to recycle metals from the end-
of-life products.
3. WEEE generation
WEEE is a kind of special resource for containing both harmful
and precious materials (Zeng et al., 2016). The amount of WEEE
increases rapidly as the technology evolves (Menad et al., 2013).
It is hard to grasp the e-waste issue. In order to improve the WEEE
management levels, increase metal recycling volume, and alleviate
the supply risk of some critical metals, comprehensive information
about the e-waste problems is useful and beneficial.
The StEP initiative, coordinated by the United Nations Univer-
sity, a worldwide leading institute in e-waste research, is paving
paths towards solutions of the e-waste problem. In April 2015,
an e-waste world-map was presented by the initiative (StEP,
2015), providing comparable, country-level data on the amount
Fig. 10. The total and per inhabitant e-waste generation of main areas in the world (StEP, 2015).
of WEEE generated in 184 countries around the world. The global
quantity of WEEE generation in 2014 was around 41.9 Mt, an
average of 5.9 kg for each of the world’s 7 billion people (Akcil,
2016). Fig. 10 shows the WEEE generation in main areas in the
world.
In general, e-waste generation per capita in developed countries
was much higher than the one in developing countries, ranging
from several times to even hundreds. The highest amount of
e-waste per inhabitant (28.4 kg/inh.) was generated in Norway,
while the lowest quantity (less than 0.2 kg/inh.) was in some Africa
countries, such as Congo, Liberia, and Niger. The United States was
the highest in total (7072 ktons) with each American responsible
for an average 22.1 kg WEEE. The top WEEE generation of the
highest five countries, America, China, Japan, German, and India,
has generated 18.72 million tons of WEEE, which contributed
about 45% of the total amount. It should be noted that the emerg-
ing countries, like China and India, are on their ways to the western
life. The demand for EEE is still growing rapidly in the coming dec-
ades. Based on the current trends, by 2017, it is estimated that the
total annual volume will be 33% higher than that in 2012 at 65.4
million tons (UNU, 2013).
In fact, many countries or areas have realized the significance of
WEEE management. By the end of 2014, approximately 4 billion
people were covered by the national e-waste legislation (StEP,
2015). However, most of these laws are not being enforced. WEEE
recycling rate is far from satisfactory. Only about 6.5 Mt of e-waste
was treated by formal take-back channels (Baldé et al., 2015),
where the e-waste is treated in the state-of-the-art facilities and
the valuable materials are recovered in an environmentally-
sound way with less negative impacts as well. That said, the rest
85% of the e-waste ended up in landfill or was treated in the
private sector. In the European Union, roughly 40% of the annual
generated e-waste is formally treated; in the United States and
Canada, the level is around 12%; for China and Japan, it is around
24–30% and in Australia, it is around 1% (Baldé et al., 2015). The
WEEE recycling status indicated that most of the valuable metals
were dissipated in the atmosphere, ground and water.
4. WEEE management and future directions
WEEE is a fast-growing hazardous waste stream which requires
special treatment and management. Large quantities of valuable
materials are stocked in WEEE (Alsheyab, 2015). The consumption
of natural resources, especially the limited critical metals, can be
mitigated by WEEE recycling. The WEEE management and
recycling have been highlighted worldwide.
 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127 121

4.1. WEEE management Table 6

Early in 2003, EU has passed the WEEE Directive (Directive
2002/96/EC), aiming to promoting WEEE collection and recovery
with a view to reduce the quantity of waste for disposal and saving
natural resources, in particular by reuse, recycling, recovering
energy with regard to environmental and economic effects. In July
2012, EU recasts the WEEE Directive (Directive 2012/19/EC) (EU,
2012). According to the Directive, the minimum collection rate
shall be 45% from 2016 and achieved to 65% from 2019. Also, it
specified the minimum recovery targets for each category, as is
shown in Table 5.
For large household appliances and automatic dispensers, the
average recovery rate set to be 80% and 85% until 2015 and
2018, respectively. To get valuable materials, the average target
is in the range from 50% to 80%. According to the table, it can also
conclude that nearly half of the WEEE or even more has not been
effectively recycled. Countries of the EU are taking an active part
in WEEE disposal and recycling.
Japan is always in the forefront of resources utilization. In 2001,
Home Appliance Recycling Act came into force to secure the envi-
ronmentally sound disposal of waste and effective utilization of
resources. Under the Act, the recycling rates of target products var-
ied from 50% to 70%, as shown in Table 6 (Ogushi and Kandlikar,
2007). Although the recycling rates varied slightly depending on
the category, they have been always much higher than the statu-
tory ones. For example, in 2012, the recycling rate of air condition-
ers was 91%, CRT televisions 82%, LCD and plasma televisions 87%,
refrigerators and freezers 80% and washing machines and clothes
dryers 86% (Hotta et al., 2014.).
According to the report by the China Household Electric Appli-
ance Research Institute (CHEARI, 2015), typical WEEE (televisions,
refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and computers)
recycling rates during 2010–2015 was shown in Fig. 11, which ran-
ged from 32.75% to 84.44% In 2011, the recycling rate of WEEE was
extremely high because of the implementation of the subsidy pol-
icy. However, the recycling rates of different kinds of WEEE varied
from less than 1% to 180% because of the fund policy. Table 7
shows the recycling rates of WEEE in the category in 2015. The dis-
posal rate of scrap TV was 180% for its high subsidy (about 85 RMB
per unit, currently the exchange rate between RMB and US Dollar is
6.878 RMB for $1 USD on 8/12/2016), which accounted for 80–90%
amount of the total WEEE. The recycling rates of washing machi-
nes, refrigerators and computers were only 15–35% in 2015, but
they keep increasing in recent years. However, air conditioners
with low subsidy but high value has the lowest disposal rate of
0.25%. WEEE is an urgent problem, which has attracted high atten-
tion by the government. With the purpose of reasonable guidance
of WEEE recycling and disposal, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of
Statutory recycling targets for each category of home appliances (Ogushi and
Kandlikar, 2007).
Appliances Statutory recycling targets
2001–2008 Until 2009
Air conditioners 60% 70%
TV (CRT) 55% 55%
TV sets (flat screen) – 50%
Refrigerators and freezers 50% 60%
Washing machines 50% 65%
Environmental Protection, National Development and Reform
Commission and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
of the People’s Republic of China recast Subsidy Standards for
Waste Electrical Electronic Products Disposal. The new standard
has been enacted since Jan 1, 2016. The subsidy for air conditioners
disposal has been enhanced from 35 RMB to 130 RMB. For waste
TV, the subsidy has reduced to 60 RMB (larger than 14 in. but smal-
ler than 25 in.) and 70 RMB (larger than 25 in.). Remarkably, the
subsidies were directly delivered to the recycling enterprises,
rather than consumers. This policy will raise the disposal rate of
WEEE and speed up the industry technical level of WEEE recovery
in China.
In Africa, the total e-waste generation was 1.9 Mt in 2014. Few
countries have enforced national WEEE related legislation (Egeonu
and Heart, 2016). Most of the generated e-waste is either stored in
households, dumped or recycled. An enormous number of individ-
uals engaged in the collection and recycling of WEEE by door-to-
door way. And then WEEE is sold to recyclers. Apart from informal
collection, WEEE are mostly recycled through backyard recycling
or substandard methods (Schluep et al., 2012). These primary
treatment techniques not only lead to serious environmental pol-
lution, but also have low metal recycling rate.
4.2. Future directions
Overall, with more and more countries have made efforts on
WEEE management and recycling, the amount of recycled WEEE
is increasing in the latest years. However, there are still some com-
mon problems on WEEE recycling. First, the relevant laws and leg-
islations do not necessarily imply coming into enforce successfully.
In many countries, WEEE recycling rate is much lower than the
statutory recycling targets. Second, most nation’s legislations do
not cover all kinds of WEEE categories. For instance in China, the
subsidies only apply to several appointed types of WEEE, which
leads to the low collection of other WEEE. Third, as WEEE recycling
is a complicated process and sometimes it is may not be economic,
the comprehensive utilization requires state-of-art technologies.

Table 5
Minimum targets for each category of WEEE defined by the Directive 2012/19/EC.

No. Category name Minimum targets in EU (%)

Until 14/08/2015 Until 14/08/2018
Recovery Recycling Recovery Recycling
1 Large household appliances 80 75 85 80
2 Small household appliances 70 50 75 55
3 IT and telecommunications equipment 75 65 80 70
4 Consumer equipment and photovoltaic panels 70 50 75 55
5 Lighting equipment 70 50 75 55
6 Electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large-scale stationary industrial tools) 70 50 75 55
7 Toys, leisure and sports equipment 70 50 75 55
8 Medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products) 70 50 75 55
9 Monitoring and control instruments 70 50 75 55
10 Automatic dispensers 80 75 85 80
Average (%) 73 ± 4 58 ± 11 78 ± 4 63 ± 11
122 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
Fig. 11. The recycling of WEEE in China during 2010–2015.
Table 7
The recycling rates of WEEE in the category in 2015.
Category TV Refrigerator
Recycling rate 180% 17%
However, it is absent, especially in developing countries. As a
result, about 6.5 Mt of WEEE was reported as formally treated at
the global scale, which was around 15.5% of the total generation
in 2014 (Baldé et al., 2015). Therefore, WEEE recycling is still far
from satisfaction and has a long way for its closed loop recycling.
Several suggestions are raised to address the problems in the
future. The primary task is to make efforts on how to guarantee
the implement of the policies. Then, establish a better database
on generation, composition and handling of WEEE, specifying recy-
cling categories. It is essential to research the impacts of WEEE on
collection, recycling and disposal, directing a reasonable method
for WEEE recycling based on the present technologies. Lastly,
advanced technologies are required to recycle WEEE environmen-
tally and economically.
5. Critical metals recycling
Generally, metals recycling from WEEE consists of four steps:
the first step is to collect, which needs the cooperation of con-
sumers, manufacturers, factories, and even government. The sec-
ond stage is dismantling, which picks out valuable components
from WEEE and classifies them. The third one is pre-treatment,
including mechanical crushing or crusher to strip metals from
the classified components. The last step is to recover valuable met-
als from crushed materials with different methods according to
their properties. Each step is critical to the final recycling rate of
metals. At the present time, WEEE collection is a global problem
but the situation becomes better. Intelligent dismantling and
pre-treatment is absent in most countries. WEEE is always treated
by manual dismantling and primary or none pre-treatment by
direct burning or acid leaching in developing countries. In this
section, the recycling situation, current problems and future devel-
opment of typical critical metals have been reviewed.
Washing machine Air conditioner Computer
38% 0.25% 27%
5.1. Indium recycling
The consumption of indium has largely depended on transpar-
ent electrodes in flat-panel displays. When ITO targets are sput-
tered on glass panels, 30–60% of the indium is deposited on the
substrate. The rest 40–70% stays in the remained ITO targets or
on the shields of the sputtering chambers. These used targets
and grinding sludge from the shields are the most important
source of secondary indium. Due to their simple structure and con-
centrated distribution, indium can be recycled economically from
waste ITO targets via a simple acid leaching or hot immersion tech-
niques (Hsieh et al., 2009; Li et al., 2011).
Waste LCD screens are important potential secondary resources
of indium, in which the concentration of indium varies between
different devices and models. The amount of available indium in
LCD screens of televisions is about 102 g/t (Wang, 2009) and it is
1102 g/t in LCD screens of mobile phones (Takahashi et al.,
2009). However, if the polymer film attached to the LCD screen is
previously removed, the concentration of available indium can be
raised dramatically. For instance, the amount of indium in TV
LCD screens increases to 1400 g/t after removing polymer film,
which is much higher than its concentration in ores. The amount
of indium associated with lead-zinc ore is only 10–20 g/t
(Takahashi et al., 2009). Therefore, it is beneficial to recover indium
due to the continued increase in the LCD screens production.
However, the recovery rate of indium is extremely low at pre-
sent time. The main reason is that the number of recycled waste
LCDs is few. Actually, LCDs began to be popular in China around
2005, but few LCDs can be recycled. The current recycling system
for WEEE has not been fully established and the formal disposal
system is not standardized. The potential yield of recycled indium
from LCDs is evaluated during the period from 2015 to 2030 in
China, as shown in Table 8 (Wang et al., 2015). Compared to the
 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
Table 8
The potential recycling of indium from 2015 to 2035 in China (tons) (Wang et al., 2015).
Appliances 2015 2020
Portable PC 6 14–16
Desktop PC 12 16–18
LCD TV 12 60–65
Yield 8–10% 23–31%
demand for indium, the indium recycled from LCDs is much less,
which only accounts for approximately 10% of the indium demand
in an ideal situation in 2015. The situation would be much better if
relevant regulations of e-waste and technological progress were
implemented.
Although there are some potential recycling methods, like
hydrometallurgical processes (Kato et al., 2013; Savvilotidou
et al., 2015), pyrometallurgy (Itoh and Maruyama, 2011) and chlo-
ride or carbon-induced vaporization (He et al., 2014), most of these
methods have been applied at a laboratory scale, rather than the
industrial scale. Presently, the separation of LCD panels from elec-
tronic appliances are difficult, especially the small devices. As a
result, the direct smelting of LCD materials in integrated smelters
has higher recovery rate of indium than mechanical processing
and hydrometallurgy. However, glass accounting for around 85%
of the LCD panel would end up in the slag during the smelting pro-
cess (Zeng et al., 2015). This method means a disproportionally
high energy input to recover a very small amount of indium, which
is not economic (Götze and Rotter, 2012). But Umicore, as one of
the most famous recycling companies, has an annually capacity
of 30 tons of indium which comes from e-waste. The state-of-the
art operations in Umicore enable the co-recovery of a number of
base metals (lead, nickel, tin) and special metals (selenium, tel-
lurium, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, partly indium) (Hagelüken
and Corti, 2010). The recovery of the certain metal is usually not
economically viable without the presence of valuable metals.
5.2. Rees recycling
The REEs are widely used in electronic appliances, where REEs
are finely dispersed. The appropriate recycling technologies can
only be identified by a detailed analysis for each composition.
However, due to the widespread use in low concentrations, REEs
recycling becomes difficult in the end-of-life products. When obso-
lete products containing REEs end up in Electric Arc Furnaces
(EAFs) or some other smelters, REEs will typically end up in the
slag phases in low concentrations. Rare earth metals can be recov-
ered from the slag using thermodynamically feasible and econom-
ically viable methods, which depend on concentration and the
recycling costs. As a result, the REEs recycling rate is less than 1%
(Graedel et al., 2011; Reck and Graedel, 2012).
In order to increase the current recycling situation, a variety of
studies have been conducted for recycling permanent magnets
(Rademaker et al., 2013), phosphors (Liu et al., 2014; Tan et al.,
2015), and nickel metal hydride batteries (Larsson and
Binnemans, 2014; Yang et al., 2014). Collectively they contribute
over 80% of the REEs market in terms of value (38% for magnets,
Table 9
Potential REEs recycling from magnets, nickel metal hydride batteries and phosphors (Binnemans et al., 2013a).
REEs appliances Estimated REEs stock
in 2020 (tons)
Permanent magnets 300,000
Phosphors 25,000
Nickel metal hydride batteries 50,000
Total 375,000
123
2025 2030 2035
22–25 30–38 33–42
20–25 30–32 30–35
60–75 75–95 70–93
31–34% 39–44% 42–45%
32% for lamp phosphors and 13% for metal alloys) (Binnemans
et al., 2013a). In recent years, many recycling processes have been
developed, such as electrochemical processing (Lister et al., 2014),
acid leaching (Zhang et al., 2013), ionic liquid extraction (Dupont
and Binnemans, 2015). Some processes intended to reuse the
materials containing REE by simple separation. For example, rare
earth fluorescent powders were separated by two-liquid flotation
using organic solvents (Otsuki et al., 2008). Other processes have
emphasized the recovery of rare earth metals via metallurgical
routes (De Michelis et al., 2011). Recycling routes should not only
have a significant efficiency of REEs recycling, but also minimize
the environmental impact.
The recycling rate of a single metal is determined by the follow-
ing factors: the collection rate of scraped products and the
recycling process efficiency rate (Graedel et al., 2011). In
Table 9, potential REEs recycling data for 2020 were calculated
(Binnemans et al., 2013a).
Their estimation indicates that the total potential recycled REEs
ranges between 5633 tons to 10,683 tons in 2020, which is about
19–35% of REEs waste. Their estimation emphasizes that REEs
recycling can make a significant contribution for the overall REEs
supply, especially for regions without rare earth ores. Compared
to the stocked REEs in 2020, recycled REEs only provide 1.3–3%.
The low supply rate is that the consumption of REEs in decade
ago is far less than that in 2020. However, when the products pro-
duced in 2020 end of life, maybe in 2030, their recycling can make
a significant contribution to the overall REEs supply. Actually, large
amounts of cooperation among researchers, industry and policy
makers may realize the recycling goal even better. For example,
REEs were successfully recovered from scrap NdFeB magnets via
membrane assisted solvent extraction by Idaho National Labora-
tory. More than 90% of neodymium, dysprosium and praseody-
mium were recovered through the membrane extraction system
(Kim et al., 2015). And then U.S. Rare Earths, Inc., a rare earths
exploration company in the United States, announced to utilize
the technology for REEs recovery.
5.3. Precious metals recycling
According to the data from the World Gold Council, gold recy-
cling accounted for 17% to 42% of the total gold supply since
1999, which fluctuated with gold price and economic conditions
(Alistair et al., 2015). In recent years, as gold prices fell, gold recy-
cling decreased to only 26% in 2014. Compared to the high-value
source materials, such as jewelry, recycling precious metals from
WEEE is considerably much more complicated. Although PCBs
and smartphones contain 200–350 g of gold per ton, they also
Average lifetime Estimated REEs scraped Recycled REEs
(years) in 2020 (tons) in 2020 (tons)
15 20,000 3300–6600
6 4167 1333–2333
10 5000 1000–1750
29,167 5633–10,683
124 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
contain up to 60 other elements as well as numerous hazardous
chemicals. Plastics and steels tend to dominate by weight, but pre-
cious metals dominate by value (Ogunniyi et al., 2009). Therefore,
the recovery of precious metals from WEEE is a hot topic (Akcil
et al., 2015; Lu and Xu, 2016). However, recycling precious metals
from WEEE safely and efficiently is challenging.
The attraction of precious metals has driven growth in the infor-
mal activities of recycling WEEE, especially in some developing
countries (Chi et al., 2011; Li et al., 2013). For instance, chemical
leaching involving cyanide and aqua regia is always used without
any safeguards. Numerous organizations and companies are work-
ing to resolve problems associated with WEEE recycling. Interna-
tional Waste Working Group (IWWG), established in 2002, for
example, aims to provide an intellectual forum to encourage and
support economic and ecological waste management world-wide
and to promote scientific advancement in the field. Much experi-
ence has been gained on a world-wide basis in the field so far,
which would promote the development of related legislation and
appropriate technologies (IWWG, 2014).
In 2014, the global recovery of platinum from recycled autocat-
alysts and jewelry was 34.3 tons. However, only 1.48 tons of plat-
inum was recovered from WEEE. For palladium, about 61.3 tons
was recovered from autocatalysts in 2014 and 14.0 tons from
WEEE. Stillwater Mining Co. (SMC), the only mining producer of
PGMs in the United Stated, recovered 14.6 tons of PGMs in 2014.
SMC produced 6.9 tons, 4.2 tons, and 0.9 tons of recycled palla-
dium, platinum, and rhodium, respectively. For WEEE, it is sug-
gested that the recovery of silver is only 11.5%, for gold is 25.6%,
and for palladium is 25.6% (USGS/PGMs, 2014). The main reason
for such low recycling of precious metals is because at least 50%
of electronics are lost owing to the inefficient collection. When
the e-waste is collected, 22–25% of precious metals are lost owing
to mechanical processing (Chancerel et al., 2009). The precious
metals are mainly dispersed in the small pieces that still contain
magnetic materials after shredding, which are pulled out during
the magnetic separation, as well as lost in the dust during the
shredding process. To avoid the loss, many integrated recycling
plants employ pyrometallurgical method to disposal e-waste,
achieving as high as 95% recovery rate of precious metals (Zhang
et al., 2015b).
5.4. Lithium and cobalt recycling
Continuing demand for EEE and electric vehicles means the
increasing requirement of lithium and cobalt. Waste Li-batteries
are significant secondary resources of lithium and cobalt. The dis-
tribution imbalance of primary minerals drives the recycling of
waste batteries. For example, during the 13th Five-Year Plan for
Economic and Social Development of China, waste Li-batteries
recycling is a focus problem that to be resolved. Recycling of sec-
ondary lithium and cobalt from batteries could significantly con-
tribute towards confining supply risks (Sommer et al., 2015).
However, just like other kinds of WEEE, the restriction factors are
not only technical problems, but also the limitations of economic
and collection systems.
Until now, most of the researches have been in the chemical
processes, trying to achieve the complete recovery of valuable met-
als. The existing methods for recycling spent Li-batteries are
mainly pyrometallurgy (Zeng et al., 2014) and hydrometallurgy
processes (Guo et al., 2016; Jha et al., 2013). To make leaching effi-
ciently, all organic electrolyte and binder are burned off by the tra-
ditional pyrometallurgical processes. In the hydrometallurgical
processes, the dismantled or crushed electrodes are first dissolved
in concentrated acids. Then metals can be recovered by precipita-
tion or electrodeposition from the pregnant solution (Barik et al.,
2016). Vacuum pyrolysis was also employed to separate the
cathodic materials from spent Li-ion batteries (Sun and Qiu,
2011). In fact, some companies have started to recycle batteries,
such as Umicore in Belgium, Jinmen GEM High-tech Co., Ltd. in
China. GEM has the largest recycling and manufacturing base of
cobalt recourses in China, with an annual disposal output of 11
ktons of waste batteries, and production capacity of 2000 tons of
cobalt powder (GEM, 2016). In Umicore, by combining a unique
pyrometallurgical treatment and a state-of-the-art hydrometallur-
gical process, all kinds of rechargeable batteries found in portable
electronic devices can be recovered (Umicore, 2015).
However, only a small fraction of spent batteries was disposed
in appropriate ways. In Europe, the recycling rate of spent batteries
was 18.03% in 2011, while an overall collection rate of 28.34% was
achieved in 2012 (Letsrecycle, 2014). Compared to developed
countries, the recycling rate in developing countries is much less,
which is usually less than 10%. Relative to primary production,
low collection rate and the high recycling cost have led to the
absence of lithium recycling. Also, although the overall recycling
rate of Co, Ni, Cu, Al, and Mn are over 50%, the recycling rate of
Li is less than 1% (Graedel et al., 2011; Reck and Graedel, 2012).
To achieve a higher collection rate of Li-batteries, many countries
and areas have already taken actions. In Europe, the battery direc-
tive 2006/66/EC on Battery and Accumulator sets out rules for col-
lection, treatment, recycling and disposal of batteries (EU, 2006).
And China, the State Council has issued the Development Plan for
Energy-Saving and New Energy Vehicles during 2012–2020 stipu-
lating the responsibilities of stakeholders and the necessity of
establishing a sophisticated recycling and management system.
Since 2016, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has
also issued several regulations, such as Electric Vehicle Power Bat-
tery Recycling Technology Policy, and Comprehensive Utilization
of New Energy Vehicle Used Power Battery, aiming at enhancing
the batteries rate and resources recycling.
6. Conclusion and recommendations
With the rapid development of technological innovation, large
amounts of critical metals are used in electronics. In the last
twenty years (1994–2014), world mining production of indium,
REEs, Lithium, and cobalt increased from 149 to 819 tons, 64.5 to
133 ktons, 6.0 to 36.0 ktons and 18.5 to 112.0 ktons, respectively.
There is not much change on the total output and consumption
of precious metals. The output and consumption of indium, REEs,
lithium and cobalt will continue to increase in the future. One of
the most demand driver is electronic industries. Up to 2014, LCD
production consumed more than 80% of total indium. About one
third of total REEs are used in EEE. For lithium and cobalt, their
consumption in rechargeable batteries increased to 35% and 41%
of the global markets, respectively. As for precious metals,
although the total amount of EEE increased dramatically, con-
sumption of precious metals kept about 10% of production because
of the substitution with less or without precious metals. The higher
demands in the future will burden the supply risk of these critical
metals.
WEEE is an important secondary resource of these critical met-
als. Their recycling can potentially relieve the supply risk of critical
metals, which has raised global awareness. EU, United States,
China, Japan, and many other countries have enacted related laws
and regulations to encourage WEEE recycling. And some countries
even require the minimum recycling rates of target products. The
global WEEE management and recycling have made a great
progress.
In essence, adequate recycling can lead to a reduction in the
consumption of primary raw materials and effective collection is
a prerequisite for metal recovery. Currently, there is no single solu-
tion for effective collection since the situation varies in different
 S. Zhang et al. / Waste Management 65 (2017) 113–127
countries. Only around 6.5 Mt WEEE was treated in formal system
in 2014. Appropriate management of WEEE should be raised by a
combination of different stakeholders in governments, manufac-
turers, the research community, and the public. More efforts are
required to guarantee the implement of the policies and realize
the official targets. On the global level, the illegal transboundary
movement of WEEE from developed countries to developing coun-
tries need to be prohibited, preventing the metal loss and environ-
mental pollution caused by improper recycling methods. To
maximize the overall recovery of critical metals, efficient and effec-
tive dismantling, preprocessing and recovery technologies are also
required. For instance, how to separate batteries and LCD screen
from cellphones.
Sometimes WEEE recycling is not technological problem, but
economic problem. It is uneconomic in industry to recover some
critical metals from WEEE as they are in low concentration in
WEEE. For example, few indium is recycled from WEEE in industry
considering its low economic benefits. WEEE contains large
amounts of valuable metals. Therefore, advanced facilities and
operations that can co-recover many kinds of metals are required.
However, the integrated smelters are absent in most developing
countries. To recycle critical metals from WEEE, it is encouraged
to invest the import of related technologies and facilities.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Key Project of Scien-
tific and Technical Supporting Programs funded by the Ministry of
Science and Technology of China (Grants 2012BAC02B01), the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants U1360202,
51472030, 51502014 and 51672024), the 111 Project (No.
B17003), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Pro-
ject (Project No: 2014M560885) and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities (Project No: FRF-TP-15-050A2).
The authors would like to thank the editor for editing of the manu-
script and the anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful
comments. The authors also appreciate Master Luxi Tang from
Beijing International Studies University for her efforts on language
editing.
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