Patrick Maley

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…

Another BIG week at Supply Chain Now! If you missed an episode, get a quick summary and listen here! We added another TWO additional episodes this week starting on Saturday, August 1st. If you didn’t catch our Supply Chain Buzz livestream last week, you got another chance to see Scott and Greg cover the top news in Supply Chain on Saturday. Supply Chain Now · “The Supply Chain Buzz for July 27th: Brand Rationalization, CSCO Diversity, & More”     On Sunday, we continued our Logistics with Purpose series with a great interview with Jon Thompson with Comunidad Connect.   Supply Chain Now · “Logistics with Purpose: Jon Thompson with Comunidad Connect”     On Monday, Scott and Greg spoke with Andrea Kerr, the VP of Product Management with SpotSee, all about optimizing supply chain visibility.   Supply Chain Now · “Optimizing Supply Chain Visibility: Angela Kerr with SpotSee”     On Tuesday we had ANOTHER great new program debut! We published the first episode of the Jamin Logistics & Transportation Experience, as Jamin Alvidrez interviewed our very own, Scott Luton!   Supply Chain Now · “Adapt & Thrive: Lessons from the Air Force, Andy Griffith & Granddad with Guest…