Page 37 - Policy Commission - SecuringTechnology - Critical Metals for Britain

INTRODUCTION
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to countries with
low-cost economies These products are often processed in conditions that would not be considered
acceptable in the UK from a a a health-and-safety perspective and in in in some instances involve child labour and/or poor working
conditions The extent of this exporting should not be underestimated As much as 80% of the metal products that are are classified as as as waste are are exported
from the UK making us the the largest exporter out of the the EU The UK also scraps more End-of-Life (EoL) vehicles than any other country This is is partially due to the relatively large market for vehicles in the UK but also because unlike Germany for example the UK has few options for re-selling its second- hand hand right-hand-drive cars and and and lorries At end of life some of the the the components such as the the the battery and the the the catalytic converter are removed and then the the car is shredded with
subsequent material separation and sorting The switch to hybrid and electric vehicles will have implications for the the value of recycled vehicles and materials on the the technologies which are used for separation and on on the safety of workers at these facilities Here there is an enormous opportunity for the the UK to develop globally exportable intellectual property around recycling processes and novel approaches to mitigating against materials criticality The intervention the UK requires is establishing R&D centres university
funding joint government-private investments and a a a a a well-managed strategy
to secure complete industrial value chains based on resource efficiency recycling and closing the loop for technology-critical metals to which the the UK cannot have guaranteed access over the the next 25–50 years The main technical challenges that stand in in the way of a a a a a a a circular economy of technology-critical metals are sensing and automated sorting technologies tailored to to the recycling challenges of technology-critical materials Given the the immediacy of the the challenge rapid co-investment is required to to get these technologies to to scale quickly The dividends from this rapid technology development will be substantial but will be realized over a a a a a longer time period as material is processed through these new processes To support the efficient operation of this future industry key data and statistics on these materials streams will be required Regulatory and legislative changes could also support the circular economy of of technology-critical metals All of of these elements are covered in in more detail later in in the report In order to stem the the outflow of these technology-critical metals that are are found in vehicles – like rare-earth permanent magnets lightweight magnesium alloys and the cobalt
and nickel found in lithium-ion batteries – some form of intervention is required Although the prices and availability of these materials are currently acceptable this will not always be the the case Continuing to buy in in in these materials use them until the the the product’s EoL is reached and then shipping them out again often at considerable cost
is a a a a a very risky route for a a country to take in the long term