End-of-life recycling rates of platinum group metals in the automotive industry: Insight into regional disparities

Abstract

Platinum group metals, as the rarest elements in the lithosphere, are technological enablers in many modern industrial processes, especially in the automotive industry. Due to the limited availability of natural resources, increasing the recycling rate is essential for securing the supply of platinum group metals. This paper estimates the end-of-life recycling rates of platinum group metals in the automotive industry at the regional level during the period 2000–2017. The results show that in North America, Europe and Japan, the end-of-life recycling rates increased from very low levels in 2000 to above 50% in 2017. In contrast, they stayed at a significantly lower level in China. In-use stocks of platinum group metals in the automotive industry of North America, Europe, Japan and China reached over 3.65 kt in 2017 and included 1.33 kt of platinum, 1.95 kt of palladium and 0.37 kt of rhodium. These in-use stocks represent a major opportunity for secondary platinum group metal recovery. The priority for recycling improvement should be increasing the collection rate.