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hidden value in electronic waste
March 25, 2026
The Geopolitics of Junk
written by Deborah Dull, on site at GreenBiz 2026 I spent today in a room full of people who think about waste for a living. And the word that kept coming up had nothing to do with recycling. It was sovereignty. Here is the situation. The United States imports 95% of its critical mineral supply. Lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, the stuff inside every battery, every semiconductor, every electric motor. We do not make it, we do not mine much of it, and we do not control the supply chain that delivers it. That is not an energy policy problem. That is a national security problem. Now here is the part that should make you put down your coffee. A ton of smartphones contains dramatically more gold than a ton of mined ore. We are talking about concentrations that make urban mining look like a gold rush compared to digging in the ground. And yet the recovery rate for those materials, once a phone leaves its first owner, drops to around 13%. We are losing roughly 80% of the value sitting in devices right now, in drawers, in closets, in landfills. E-waste is also the fastest growing waste stream…
May 6, 2020
Meat shortages impacting more than just the big fast food chains
Supply Chain Now Principle, Greg White, was featured in the WSB-TV Atlanta article and segment on meat shortages impacting more than just the big fast food chains on May 6th. VIEW ARTICLE HERE.