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from trash to inventory
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…
April 9, 2021
This Week In Supply Chain Now: April 5th – 9th
It’s been a great week here at Supply Chain Now! Stay in the loop with all our latest conversations right here. We kicked off the week on Monday with 3 new episodes! In this episode, Greg White and Scott Luton welcomed Logan Ensign with Alloy and Katlyn Davis with Valvoline to Supply Chain Now to discuss how sales and supply chain can work together for retail success. On This Week in Business History, host Scott W. Luton interviewed an entertainment industry trailblazer: Ellen Snortland. In this wide-ranging, fascinating discussion, Ellen shares her incredible journey from helping her family survive a horrible, life-changing flood in South Dakota t0 forming the first all-female theater company in Santa Barbara, California – – and beyond! On Supply Chain Now en Espanol, hosts Enrique Alvarez and Demo Pérez welcomed Juan Carlos Croston, president of the Caribbean Shipping Association, to the podcast. On Tuesday, we released 2 new episodes. TEK TOK Digital Supply Chain Podcast released a replay of its latest livestream in which hosts Karin Bursa and Scott Luton welcomed Mallery Dosdall with Red Wing Shoe Co. to learn how S&OP can make an enormous impact on business. On TECHquila Sunrise, host Greg White discusses…