South Korea has taken an initial step toward establishing a domestic circular system for permanent magnets contained in waste electronic products.
The initiative is expected to separate and recover about 600 kilograms of neodymium annually from approximately 95,000 discarded computers. The recovered materials are expected to be used for domestic stockpiling and practical applications.
In parallel,
The South Korean government has launched its first pilot project to recover and stockpile rare earth permanent magnets from discarded computer hard disk drives. The initiative aims to secure critical minerals such as neodymium from electronic waste and reduce the country's heavy reliance on China for key resources.
The government is also pushing for legal revisions to limit overseas exports of valuable recyclable waste materials.
On May 27, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the pilot project at NH Recytech Company in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
Organizations participating in the agreement include the ministry, the Korea Environment Corporation, Circular Governance, and the Korea Metal Recycling Industry Association.
The core of the project is to establish a resource circulation system that separates and recovers rare-earth permanent magnets contained in discarded computer hard disk drives (HDDs) for domestic stockpiling and research and development purposes.
Each hard drive contains roughly 20 grams of neodymium-based rare-earth permanent magnets. However, due to the high cost of manual disassembly, most HDDs have traditionally been shredded along with other metals and recycled as scrap. Even when magnets were separated, a lack of domestic demand meant that some were likely exported overseas, including to China.
Under the pilot program, Circular Governance collects used computers from households and businesses and separates the storage devices. The Korea Metal Recycling Industry Association then takes over the HDDs to extract and recover the rare-earth permanent magnets. The recovered materials will be used only for domestic stockpiling or demonstration and research purposes, with exports strictly restricted. The Korea Environment Corporation will be responsible for verifying recycling performance and managing related statistics.
The government expects the initiative to recover approximately 2 tons of rare-earth permanent magnets annually from around 95,000 discarded computers. Based on an estimated neodymium content of 30% in the magnets, this equates to roughly 600 kilograms of neodymium.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment plans to expand the initiative to other waste electrical and electronic equipment containing permanent magnets, such as air conditioner compressors, in the future.
At the same time, the government is also pushing for revisions to the Act on Transboundary Movements of Waste and Its Disposal. The amendment would introduce a new legal basis to restrict waste exports and imports on the grounds of “ensuring stable domestic supply and promoting circular resource use.” The bill was referred to the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the 19th.
Kim Sung-hwan, Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment, said that permanent magnets contained in electronic waste are a key strategic resource for recovering rare earth elements, which he described as the “vitamins” of advanced industries.
He added that the government will overhaul related regulations to prevent critical waste resources from being exported overseas and to ensure they are efficiently recycled domestically. He also emphasized that the ministry will work with the private sector to build a domestic rare earth recycling ecosystem to support the development of advanced industries.
