For decades, China was the largest importer of waste, but at the beginning of this year, it banned 24 types of scraps from entering the country.
As the world’s hunger for energy reaches dizzying heights, lithium and its chemical compounds continue to make large strides on the commodities market due to their wide range of industrial applications, especially in their use in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).
The University of NSW (UNSW) has developed the world’s first ‘microfactories’ that can transform all of the recycled containers and materials put out in council bins, along with other waste streams such as e-waste, and convert them into reformed materials including metal alloys, plastic filament for 3D printing, and glass panels for building products.
An idea germinated by an École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) engineer in 2013 to extract value from mining waste by recycling the quartz it contains to make composite surfaces for kitchen and bathroom countertops, has been picked up by a Brzil-based mining giant.