CEPS IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS - DEVELOPING A SUPPLY CHAIN FOR RECYCLED RARE EARTH

Tacking stock of the analysis, the report suggests that introduction of product labelling requirements, the development of recycling quotas, the provision of financial support to recycling operations and the establishment of eco-design requirements. [...] This is the objective of INSPIRES, a project co-funded by the EU, which aims to develop a closed- loop recycling chain for rare earth permanent magnets from disposed of home appliances, by covering all steps of the value chain, from the collection and dismantling of EoL products, to the processing of spent rare earth magnets, the production of recycled magnets and their reuse into new products. [...] For the former, obtaining the magnets requires the extraction and dismantling of the motor and of the rotor first, then a process that requires either sophisticated and automated work or a significant amount of manual labour. [...] As discussed in the previous chapter and as raised by various authors26, the uncertainty regarding the volume and the composition of future EoL streams represents in fact one of the major barriers to the establishment of an NdFeB magnet recycling value chain. [...] Secondly, it provides an indication of the extent to which recycling of magnets could compensate the future increased demand for NdFeB magnets in the EU in the short, medium and long term, provided that the barriers described in the previous section were addressed and that a viable supply chain for recovered magnets was to be established in the EU.