How companies improve critical raw material circularity: 5 use cases

Alessandra Hool (), Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Sander van Nielen, Andrew Clifton, Sophia Ganzeboom, Christian Hagelueken, Yasushi Harada, Hendy Kim, Anthony Ku, Juliane Meese-Marktscheffel and Takeshi Nemoto
Additional contact information
Alessandra Hool: ESM Foundation
Dieuwertje Schrijvers: WeLOOP
Sander van Nielen: Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University
Andrew Clifton: Rolls-Royce plc
Sophia Ganzeboom: ESM Foundation
Christian Hagelueken: Umicore AG & Co KG
Yasushi Harada: Chiyoda-ku
Hendy Kim: 143-12 Gunsansandan-ro
Anthony Ku: NICE America Research
Juliane Meese-Marktscheffel: H.C. Starck Tungsten GmbH
Takeshi Nemoto: Chiyoda-ku

Mineral Economics, 2022, vol. 35, issue 2, No 10, 325-335

Abstract: Abstract This report showcases five examples of industries applying circular strategies for CRMs: (1) recycling of tungsten carbide scrap by H.C. Starck Tungsten, (2) recycling of battery cathode materials by SungEel Hitech, (3) recovery of rare earth elements from hard disk drives by Hitachi Group, (4) closed rhenium loops by Rolls-Royce, and (5) recovery of platinum group metals by Umicore. The adaptation of business models appears to be one of the biggest enablers of raw material circularity. Ideally, all involved stakeholders (including the manufacturers, the users, and the recyclers) have a common interest in, and are incentivized by retaining the material’s value, which stimulates transparent material flows and close cooperation. This is enabled by retained ownership and with long-term, well-defined relationships between the value chain actors. Such relationships can be enhanced by vertical integration, or by long-term contractual agreements. The benefits of implementing circularity provide a mandate for governmental intervention in stimulating circularity strategies, for example via regulations and subsidies, to overcome initial investment thresholds.

Keywords: Critical raw material; Companies; Recycling; Circular business models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13563-022-00315-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:minecn:v:35:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s13563-022-00315-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13563

DOI: 10.1007/s13563-022-00315-5

Access Statistics for this article

Mineral Economics is currently edited by Magnus Ericsson and Patrik Söderholm

More articles in Mineral Economics from Springer, Raw Materials Group (RMG), Luleå University of Technology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().