Advanced sorting and cost reduction are issues for rare metal recycling
Recycled metals are presently limited to main structural materials such as iron and aluminum, and profitable high value-added metals such as copper and precious metals. Meanwhile, now that prices have dropped for rare metals and rare earths, it is said to be difficult to establish an economical recycling business in Japan. As a result, these resources are presently not sorted and are instead mixed into slag as raw material for roadbed materials or flow to overseas locations with lower recycling costs. In order to use these rare metals and other resources again as metal resources in Japan, it is necessary to establish technology for refining metals recovered from waste goods and technology that reduces recycling costs.