News & Trends

The waste mountain as a goldmine

29.04.2025 2 min

Thanks to new recycling economy technologies, electronic waste is becoming a valuable resource – and an opportunity for innovative companies. This is because waste often hides rare earths, the mining of which is not only ecologically hazardous, but also socially risky.

People leave behind enormous amounts of waste. In 2023 alone, around 61 million tonnes of electronic waste was created. When we throw things away, many valuable raw materials are lost. The recycling economy wants to change this: with recyclable products that are designed from the outset with the potential to be disassembled and reclaimed.

The concept is called “Design to recycle”. It makes sense not only from a green perspective, but also financially. True, recyclable products are often more expensive to manufacture, but the life-cycle costs are significantly lower – in one example in a study by the University of Zurich, these costs were 39 percent lower.

Resources are scarce and valuable. This is especially true for rare earths, without which digitalization, the energy transition and progress would be unthinkable. They are in every smartphone, every electric motor and every computer. Precisely because of how difficult it is to extract – mostly in poor countries – and dispose of them, companies with a circular mindset and innovative technologies are in demand in the waste management industry. Only when everyone gets on board will the economy become regenerative – and waste will become an important, in-demand resource.

Umicore – using microorganisms to tackle waste mountains

Belgian company Umicore has made a name for itself as a recycler of precious metals. Today, it is recycling rechargeable batteries with the help of microorganisms – and proving that here, too, a closed material cycle is possible.

Empa – prospecting for rare earths with urban mining

At ETH Zurich researchers are also experimenting with a process which uses a molecule to mine rare earths from old fluorescent lamps. Meanwhile, Empa is focusing on urban mining: recycling valuable resources from buildings or electrical waste. This means that in future we will be able to acquire rare earths here in Switzerland instead of in dubious mines in Africa.