Reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s a mantra that has been drilled into our heads, and one that most folks abide by. But while you might separate your plastics from your papers, if you’ve got an old smartphone rotting away in a drawer somewhere, then you’re guilty of a major recycling sin.
Old smartphones, cameras, laptops, tablets and anything else with a lithium-ion battery are actually major sources of cobalt, the metal that accounts for a significant part of rechargeable batteries, and they’re doing no one any good sitting in your desk drawer.
Increased use of rechargeable batteries in all manner of gadgets has resulted in higher demand for cobalt from the battery chemicals industry. According to TechNavio analysts, the use of cobalt in rechargeable batteries has grown from 14 thousand metric tons in 2009 to 33 thousand metric tons in 2013. The upside is that the Global Cobalt Market is growing with a CAGR of 6.05 percent from 2014-2018. The downside is that increased demand for cobalt is at major odds with supply constraints on the market.
Cobalt Supply Shrinking While Demand Increases
This high demand for cobalt is butting heads with the market’s actual ability to meet demands. More than 50 percent of the global supply of cobalt comes from West African countries, such as the DRC and Zambia. Political and socio-economic instability in these areas as well as a lack of infrastructure and logistical challenges are acting as huge barriers to the mining of cobalt.
Because of this, the global supply of cobalt has to be derived from a variety of secondary sources. Cobalt is an extensively recycled metal, but the majority of cobalt is recycled from pre-consumer scraps such as hard alloys and tools. Post-consumer recycling consists primarily of batteries, catalysts, and alloys. However, in 2013, the cobalt content obtained through recycling accounted for only 25 percent of global consumption.
There are currently initiatives in place to help collect used electronics, in part to recycle the cobalt in their lithium-ion batteries. Urban mining, which is “the process of reclaiming compounds and elements from products, buildings and waste” is starting to take off. However, consumer awareness of, and participation in recycling programs is still low.
And while the battery industry is responsible for consuming 37 percent of the global supply of cobalt, there are many other industries that rely on the metal. On top of acting as a major component in your computer battery, cobalt is also used in computer memory storage. It has applications in the healthcare sector in vitamin B12 and as a radioisotope used in cancer treatment. And just to cement cobalt’s good guy image, it is widely used in renewable energy applications such as geothermal power plants, solar cells and wind turbines.
Demand for cobalt will continue to grow as the market shows strong projections for the next four years. So reconsider the next time you lay your old gadgets to rest in the back of the closet—a revamped recycling strategy could spell the difference for the future of the Global Cobalt Market.
For more market insights, view our Global Cobalt Market 2014-2018 report.
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