Slashdot Mirror
Japan Begins Recycling Rare Earth Metals From Electronics
Black Gold Alchemist writes "Dowa, a Japanese mining company in Kosaka, has begun the recycling of rare earth metals from used cellphones and computers. This is in response to a recent, temporary trade embargo from China, which is the leading supplier of rare earth metals needed for production of products including hybrid cars, wind turbines, and LCD screens. Because of the shortage of rare earth metals, Japanese trade minister Akihiro Ohata is asking the government to include a rare earth strategy in its supplementary budget for this year."
like, for example, importing the stuff from mongolia. this may turn out to be the faster and cheaper way out.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704380504575529383600995748.html
The most interesting part of this mini-debacle is how did the idea that there would be a shortage of rare earth elements came about at all, and why did the Chinese believe it, the idea being utter bullshit.
While it is true that China manages to produce these cheaply at the moment, rare earth elements are available basically all over the place in similar proportions.
Using them as a policy-making tool has done no harm to Japan, and potentially a lot of harm to the credibility of China as an economic player, especially to its counterparties in Asia, but also anyone who may have a reason to expect potential future clash of interests.
While the Japanese acted out during the crisis as scared pussies, the Chinese appear to have played the role of the dumber party.
Seeing great Asian powers like Japan and China just learning to dab at foreign relations after 6 decades of American dominance is very interesting.
Mainly politics I think. They want to show a response to the Chinese embargo threat. China is punching way above it's political weight, mainly on the assumption that one day they'll actually reach that weight and is becoming increasingly aggressive with (very dubious) territorial claims against many of it's neighbors. They either need to adapt a more cooperative stance, or Japan is better served by being less dependent on China.
while this is a good idea (ok, a very good idea), the difficulty is implementing it. it's already difficult enough to separate the 5 or 6 kinds of materials that are being recycled today from trash, let alone extending that to a large number or other, potentially recyclable materials (which is, really, almost every kind of trash other than food...). pulling this off would require serious commitment from governments, organizations, and individuals, and that seems unlikely, considering that simply separating plastic bottles and cans from trash already seems to be an incredibly difficult task for many people...
weinersmith
Uh... if China closed its ports tomorrow, who would blink first: them, or the rest of the world?
Up to now, China has been a most benign economic superpower, certainly far less abusive than Russia, the EU or the USA who engage in round-robin economic blackmail pretty much constantly.
If China ever start punching at their actual weight - for example, asking what exactly they can buy with the trillions of foreign currency that they're sitting on - then we'll all be they beeyatches.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
If China tried that, it wouldn't actually happen and would show the lack of power their central government actually wages. It would probably lead to the overthrow of the Chinese government long before it brought down any foreign power.
China's entire currency system is economic blackmail. By all rights it should have appreciated an extra 50%, and the rest of the world is increasingly unwilling to succumb to such blackmail.
They can't "buy" anything with it. They have to hold on to it in order to artificially affect the exchange rates of the currencies. Their dependence on US debt purchases for this means WE have THEM over a barrel. Relatively minor policy changes on our part could have sweeping effects on the valuation of their entire economic system. Of course, they have nowhere else to dump the money so they continue to rely on US debt purchases despite its weakness. Imagine if 90% of your 401K was also kept in your company's stock... think Enron's employees... that's what China is potentially setting itself up for by buying so much debt from their biggest trading partner and the largest economy in the world.
E pluribus unum
China's move to this position would put DeBeers to shame. While I'm no fan of swadeshi, this certainly shows what happens in co-dependent relationships between nations.
China is punching way above it's political weight, mainly on the assumption that one day they'll actually reach that weight and is becoming increasingly aggressive with (very dubious) territorial claims against many of it's neighbors. They either need to adapt a more cooperative stance, or Japan is better served by being less dependent on China.
This is so ignorant of the situation that I sincerely hope you are not an Asian, otherwise you better brush up on the history for the past half century.
For one, do you realize that China's GDP has already surpassed Japan? So economically, they are on equal footing, with China growing significantly faster than Japan in foreseeable near future.
Second, your "very dubious" comment on China's territorial claim on the Diaoyu Island shows how ignorant you are. China has historical documents should Diaoyu Island being Chinese territory since hundreds of years past. The only claim of Japan for the Island is that US, after controlling it since WW2, gave it to Japan instead of returning it to China. Unless the US is going to recognize territorial claim based only on "might makes right" (which, incidentally, will mean they also recognize China's rule over Tibet, regardless of history), China clearly has better claim based on history.
Thirdly, it is Japan who is taking the non-cooperative stance in the whole debacle. China has proposed "let's put aside the dispute and develop together" stance since decades ago by Deng, it is Japan now suddenly arresting Chinese fishing boat captain, detaining him over 10 days, and insisting on continue prosecuting him based on Japanese local law (and thus firmly establishing precedence of Japan's rule on the island) which forced China back into a corner. The usual practice in the past was for Japanese guard boats to chase and drive away Chinese fishing boats (which, BTW, have been fishing there non-stop for generations already), for which China would have just stayed silent, then none of these dispute would have happened.
Unfortunately, thanks to lob-sided US media reporting (which obviously will neglect to report how US created the whole problem to start with), "OMG! China evil!" theme, and totally ignorant Americans regarding Asian history and US foreign policy, we get Americans who think China is stirring up trouble in the region.
Just look at how other countries are saying. The US is the only country who has said anything remotely in favor of Japan on this issue. No other Asian country spoke a word in favor of Japan. That's telling you something about Japan's goodwill (the lack of) in Asia.
This was reported on NPR yesterday. The "shortage" of rare Earth elements was primarily a result of China strategically purchasing companies that extracted valuable elements from ore. Apparently no one was paying close attention to the global supply chain of rare Earth elements. As others have said, rare Earth elements are quite abundant all over the world, so the only competitive advantage is the ability to refine the ore economically with low environmental impact.
Most "recycling" in the U.S. (probably most of the western world) consists of loading electronics into shipping containers and sending them to some third world shithole where the locals strip them in toxic working/living conditions. Interesting investigative report not long ago from 60 Minutes on the subject (and it's a chance to see the rare bit of actual investigative journalism, before it goes completely extinct).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It wouldn't have those billions if it hadn't be manipulating it's currency for over a decade ... you are confusing biding their time with being benign. They can not just jank US and EU consumption and go completely domestic ... everything would instantly go to shit. They are not self sufficient in food or raw materials either.
They will just wait for the US and the EU to slowly choke their consumption through austerity while they build up their internal consumption and start profiting from both all the factories we shipped there and all the billions in reserves they hold. I think it will take around 20 years for them to stop running a trade deficit and build down their US/EU currency/securities holdings.
US/EU will go to shit, except for our super rich, and China will go to riches ... but not at the drop of a hat.
it shows that current electronics recycling is not a gimmick, at least in Japan.
Not terribly sure about electronics, but with everything else you'd probably be amazed. I have 7 different garbage categories in my town. I have to put my name and location on my garbage bags. If I make a mistake in sorting the garbage, they send it back to me (it has happened more than once...). And it's not just gross sorting. With pet bottles I have to take the caps off (different category) and the labels off (different category). My yogurt containers are made from recyclable plastic covered with cardboard. I have to separate the cardboard from the plastic and put it in different containers. Etc, etc, etc...
Electronics is easy. You take it to the electronics shop and they take care of it for you. I'm not sure exactly what they do, but I'm assuming it's fairly rigorous. Japan just doesn't have any landfill space...
I don't know how much of an net positive environmental impact recycling rare earths from circuitry provides
As I recall, separating ore into rare earths isn't a clean process either, so it may still come out ahead.
While this sounds like a good idea, the problem is that segregating and storing all this stuff would be tremendously expensive (the cost of segregating recyclable materials is one of the main reasons why recycling programs have had somewhat of a checkered history). And there's no guarantee that it would ever pay off. So it would be tough to get anyone to invest in something like this.
Both countries have had their governments and government bureaucracies ripped apart and rebuilt basically from scratch post-WWII.
In China, the communists removed KMT, sent Chiang to Taiwan and started from zero. Three times, actually, if you count the Cultural revolution, and the subsequent removal of the Maoist wing by Deng.
Some countries refused to acknowledge the existence of PRC until the 70s, and China started to really perceive itself and try to act as a superpower very recently.
In post-war Japan, the US occupational authority rewrote the constitution, made quite a few changes in the way government was run, engaged in a serious redistribution of wealth via the land reform, etc. US retained full control of the country until 1952, and partial control until 1972.
Some Japanese even say the country still has no independent foreign policy, and indeed it almost seems so at times.
Just last year a party that is quite new to being a government party was elected with a landslide and fresh ideas as to how bureaucracy and foreign relations should work.
It already had one major foreign policy crisis (the clash of sorts with US over an Okinawa base), which was an important reason why the PM stepped down this summer.
Besides, Chinese-Japanese relations weren't all that rich in the past. Japan was a closed society (because of fear from China) until the mid-1800s, and most of the relations they've had with China since then would qualify as "diplomacy" only if you use the von Clausewitz definition thereof.
it shows that current electronics recycling is not a gimmick, at least in Japan.
Not terribly sure about electronics, but with everything else you'd probably be amazed. I have 7 different garbage categories in my town. I have to put my name and location on my garbage bags. If I make a mistake in sorting the garbage, they send it back to me (it has happened more than once...). And it's not just gross sorting. With pet bottles I have to take the caps off (different category) and the labels off (different category). My yogurt containers are made from recyclable plastic covered with cardboard. I have to separate the cardboard from the plastic and put it in different containers. Etc, etc, etc...
Electronics is easy. You take it to the electronics shop and they take care of it for you. I'm not sure exactly what they do, but I'm assuming it's fairly rigorous. Japan just doesn't have any landfill space...
Where in Japan are you? Just curious.
But other than that, you are on point. I was in Yokohama during new years eve, and it is amazing the discipline involved in the proper recycling of garbage (discipline displayed by both the collectors and the general population.) I believe it is not only out of modern necessity, but that Japan has historically been a clean country, much more than any other country as testified by Eastern and Western travelers back in the day.
While I enjoy the occasional US bashing, this is completely wrong.
If you just look at the structure of China's manufacturing, you'll see why. Their value added is still almost 100% coming from cheap labor. For every $100 of exports, China imports about $95, and adds about $5. Almost anything high-tech is still not manufactured there, just assembled. As for the "IP" ... they hold the schematics, true, but without the US, Japanese and Korean chips to fit in those PCB boards, what good does it do to them?
This is why they try to keep their currency cheap so desperately - with low margins, dependent on cheap labor, pushing wages up even a tad too much can erode their competitiveness totally and send them into a very serious recession.
China also relies heavily on trade for energy and raw materials, and to foreign capital -- that means not some abstract money symbols, but tools and equipment produced elsewhere. They are far from self-sufficient, unless it is the 60s and 70s kind of self-sufficiency.
Also, when people talk about China's "owning" of US, or "dumping" US assets, they seem to forget the central bank of China still carries the huge negatives of the 1998 crisis, and who knows how much in bad assets from the 07-08 financial assplosion. All financed with government money that is now more or less worthless in real terms, government money that China will need 20 years down the road to care for its aging population. They can't afford to devalue what they are holding anymore than US can do so.
If it would close its borders, virtually all of China's modern manufacturing will stop working overnight, and the roughly 300 million people who have made the spectacular growth we have seen in the past three decades will be out of work.
If it would try to devalue US assets, it will condemn to hunger most of its "graying" population 20 years down the road.
In short, it won't work.
Trade isn't a weapon, it is means for people to get more value out of shit than they'd have if they just hoarded it. The sooner people grasp the point, the better things will be. It ain't rocket science.