Recycling Electronics for Climate Action

Support RECAs work with a donation through our 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability!

Your donation will allow us to research, educate and advocate for 100% circularity of electronics in Minnesota and beyond!

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Climate change solutions are in jeopardy because of pending shortages of critical metals required to produce renewable products at a scale required to dramatically reduce greenhouse gasses. The products include: {solar panels,; wind turbines,; electric vehicles,; air source heat pumps, geothermal, and utility-scale energy storage units}.  They are included in the broader challenge of electronics recycling.

Recycling is the least expensive, quickest, and most environmentally friendly approach to sourcing the metals needed for the clean energy and clean transportation transitions. We can not mine our way out of this climate crisis and recycling metals from electronics waste will give us a chance to keep supply chains flowing. The mining industry is responsible for 7% of the world’s GHG emissions. Metals that are recycled have a footprint up to 90% smaller than those that were virgin mined. All the metals needed for energy transition are present in this waste stream and in quantities worth retrieving. Circuit boards from e-waste contain between 10 to 600 grams of gold per ton, while existing open pit mines have gold grades as low as 1 gram per ton of ore. 

Clearly the recycling industry in Minnesota, the Midwest and the U.S. is not organized at an adequate scale to meet the problem solving potential of electronics recycling.  Therefore, we are committing ourselves to organizing “Recycling Electronics for Climate Action” (RECA) dedicated to catalyzing and expanding the electronics metal recycling industry with a focus on climate solutions. The vision for this association is to bring together businesses and advocates to create the investments, structures and laws needed to supply already-mined metals to rapidly growing American manufacturers of clean energy and clean transportation technology.