Japan's Rare Earth Recycling Efforts

Japan is the world’s leading importer of rare earth elements or REEs. To compensate for its lack of indigenous REEs, the Japanese government and some of the country’s leading companies are working on REEs recycling programs. In 2010 Hitachi first revealed its REEs recycling program than in 2012 Honda announced that it would be launching a program of its own.

One of the primary reason Hitachi has developed the system is to reduce it reliance on China’s supply of REEs (China has a virtual monopoly on REEs producing 97 per cent of the world’s supply). Hitachi is hopeful that the recycled minerals will supply 10 per cent of its REE needs.

REEs are commonly used to manufacture important renewable energy infrastructure including wind turbines, solar panels. They are also instrumental in the manufacturing of electric vehicles. They are also used for common technologies like smartphones and computers.

In 2012, the Japanese government offered a total of $100 million in subsidies. The government sees real opportunties in the nation’s waste. According to Japan’s Environment Ministry, the country discards 650,000 tons of products containing REEs. The government believes that they can recycle 280,000 tons of rare earth and other metal resources which are worth ¥84.4 billion [$1.03 billion].

Tokyo-based Hitachi has a REE recycling plan that is cost effective and less environmentally harmful than traditional methods. In 2010, the Japanese electronics and engineering company announced that it was developing machinery for the purpose of recycling REEs. Its mineral harvesting machinery came online in 2013, and is capable of extracting about 100 rare earth magnets per hour from old hard disk drives. The new automated process is eight times faster than traditional manual approaches. The company also indicated it has developed more efficient cutting and demagnetising equipment designed to extract rare earth magnets from compressors.

Hitachi’s new system is both more cost effective and less environmentally destructive than traditional methods of extracting rare earth metals from discarded machinery. Rather than use acids and chemicals the company uses a new dry extraction method.

In 2012 Honda and Japan Metals & Chemicals Co. started the first mass-production process to recapture rare earth metals from used Honda parts. In particular, Honda is focusing on used nickel-metal hydride batteries (NiMH). According to Honda their process can recover 80 percent of rare earth metals contained in the used NiMH batteries.

While Japanese companies are looking towards recycling of REEs, South Korean company Samsung is seeking alternatives. Through its Future Technology Cultivation Project, the massive manufacturing conglomerate is financing 27 projects, including research on materials that can substitute the use of rare earths.

While Hitachi is actively recycling REEs, they are also looking into developing REE free technology. In 2012 they produced an energy-efficient motor that does not use rare earth elements.