The French company Rhodia has opened the world's first factory in La Rochelle to recycle rare earths on a large scale. This is what Technology Review reports in its current issue 01/2013 (recently available at the kiosk or free of charge directly in the Heise Shop) For a long time, the recycling of the 17 elements - from lanthanum for batteries to europium for fluorescent tubes to neodymium for magnets in wind turbine motors and on hard drives - was considered uneconomical. But when China - the world's largest producer of rare earths with a share of over 97 percent - imposed an export ban on the coveted elements in 2010, the resulting price explosion roused the industry and the waste sector. Even if untapped raw material capacities could be mobilized, according to experts, supplies of neodymium and other rare earths would run out before 2030.
