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US policymakers are ramping up efforts to build a homegrown supply chain for rare earth magnets — the critical components powering electric vehicles, wind turbines and advanced defense systems — with a sharper focus on recycling and circular production to cut dependence on China, according to panelists speaking at the E-Scrap Conference occurring October 27-29 in Grapevine, Texas.
While global magnet production remains dominated by China, US initiatives are now aligning around both new domestic production and recovery of end-of-life materials in a bid to build a resilient supply chain.
It comes as an intensifying trade war between the US and China saw Beijing dramatically expand its rare earths export controls. Shipments of 12 rare earth elements are now restricted after China added holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium to the list in early October.
Ikenna Nlebedim, researcher at Ames National Laboratory’s Critical Materials Innovation Hub, said he believes the US government sees recycling as a central component of its critical minerals strategy, alongside efforts to restart rare earth mining and separation capacity.
Estimates vary widely on how much recycling could contribute to US magnet demand in the coming years. “Some studies suggest recycling could meet about a quarter of our rare earth needs, while others go as high as 40-50%,” he said. “It all depends on how efficiently we can recover, separate and remanufacture these materials here in the United States.”
But he cautioned that realizing this potential depends on developing domestic processing and metallization infrastructure, not just collecting scrap.
“Recovering oxides is one thing,” he said. “But we also need the separation and metalmaking capacity to actually turn those materials back into usable magnets.
Panelists highlighted the technical and economic barriers to magnet recycling. Many magnets are encased in coatings and assemblies that make recovery difficult, and current recycling technologies are still being optimized.
Molly Mackenzie, manager of strategic partnerships at rare earth recovery company Cyclic Materials, pointed out that the “design-for-recycling” concept has not yet penetrated product design in electronics and automotive manufacturing, meaning most devices are not built to be easily dismantled.
She said Cyclic Materials and other companies recovering rare earths from end-of-life products are developing processes to mechanically and chemically separate magnet materials, but added that scaling these technologies requires stable policy support and coordination across the supply chain.
“We can recover material,” she said, “but we need to ensure it stays in the US and feeds back into domestic manufacturing rather than being exported for processing.”
Daniel Rowe, executive director of recycling at RecycleForce, also emphasized the importance of building domestic recycling networks that can capture materials before they leave the country. “Once end-of-life electronics or motors are exported, we lose control of that material. Keeping it here supports both recycling jobs and supply chain security,” he said.
He added that policy incentives should reward closed-loop recycling, where recovered materials directly re-enter US production and help recyclers navigate regulatory and cost challenges associated with rare earth recovery.
Current estimates suggest less than 1% of rare earth elements are recycled, even as demand for magnets is set to increase sharply over the next decade.
“It comes as ‘not all rare earths are born equal’ — and some of them are much more difficult to separate and recover than others, and they do not all have the same market demand,” Nlebedim noted.
“When we talk about rare earth recycling, we really need to be specific about which elements we’re targeting and why — otherwise the economics do not add up,” he said, adding that while rare earth recovery is technically possible, only certain elements like neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium used in magnets have clear commercial pathways currently.
The panelists also discussed the need for greater collaboration between manufacturers, recyclers and policymakers.
Mackenzie said that while some electronics and automotive original equipment manufacturer express interest in sustainable sourcing, few are yet designing products with magnetic material recovery in mind. “It’s not yet part of their design systems,” she said, “but we’re seeing early signs of change, especially as the economic and strategic value of rare earths becomes clearer.”
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