Does industry close the loop?

The sustainment of ‘value’ beyond products’ first-use life cycles can promote a circular and more environmentally sound economy. This includes the recovery of raw materials after a new product's end of life. More specifically, high-tech products contain manifold scarce resources such as rare earth metals, precious metals and semi-conductors. Society regards such metals as an important economic resource, underpinning the competitive advantage of national economies. This paper analyses whether industry has developed appropriate recycling process technologies for selected ‘critical metals’. The study runs a quantitative patent analysis, and identifies highly precise search terms from a qualitative expert literature review. Findings suggest that industry has begun closing the loop for certain metals and that technology suppliers, if approximated by patent output, arise mainly from Asian countries. The patent count also provides insight into the recent global metals recycling and recovery technology landscape, namely, its dynamics and top applicants.