Rebecca Alban

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…

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now! We kicked this week off with a new episode in our Supply Chain Real Estate Series produced in partnership with Prologis. Scott Luton and special host Ward Richmond welcomed Managing Partner Will O’Donnell and Vice President Todd Lewis from Prologis Ventures. For Monday’s This Week In Business History episode, Scott tells an interesting story of one of the most captivating and influential movie rental businesses in American history. On Tuesday, we released a new episode of TEKTOK, with host Karin Bursa. In this episode, Karin talks with Ben Cubitt, SVP of Consulting and Network Services for Transplace. They discuss the future of supply chain logistics into next year, from continued network disruptions to taking smart steps today to regain a proactive footing. On Wednesday’s Supply Chain Now episode, Scott and special guest host Crystal Davis welcomed the Vice President of Transportation for Home Depot, Sarah Galica, to the show. She gives insight on some of the improvements that resulted in $34 billion dollars in growth for The Home Depot. For Thursday’s Supply Chain Now episode, Scott and guest host…