Component self-assembly for reciprocal urban mining

Qingming Song, Shuyu Chen, Xuehong Yuan, Honghuai Sun, Ya Liu and Zhenming Xu ()
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Qingming Song: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shuyu Chen: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Xuehong Yuan: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Honghuai Sun: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Ya Liu: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Zhenming Xu: Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Nature Sustainability, 2025, vol. 8, issue 9, 1026-1036

Abstract: Abstract Urban mines—stockpiles of materials in discarded waste—include various metals, oxides, polymers and halogens with diverse implications in terms of materials sustainability, which are reflected in different environmental–economic–efficiency trade-offs when recycling them. Here we leverage the diverse composition of urban mines to develop ‘reciprocal recycling’—a self-assembly strategy that uses urban mine components to support their own recycling to ultimately activate sustainable urban mining. We screened tens of physicochemical componential interactions available for multimetal co-recovery, halogenated pollutants elimination and polymer conversion. Self-assembly prototypes with four fundamental componential interactions were presented for reciprocal recycling of representative urban mines. Under the guidance of revealed physicochemical interaction mechanisms, the reciprocal recycling process design enabled >96% recovery of copper–platinum–palladium–rhodium, >99% suppression of brominated pollutants and mediated epoxy resin conversion. The self-assembly strategy showcased joint environmental–economic–efficiency benefits and high flexibility, paving the way to sustainable urban mining and improving material circularity.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01611-y

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