alt Hacker NewsThey're talking about our nascent circular economy.
Recycling now recovers >95% of raw minerals (and will continue to improve).
The learning curves for battery and solar tech will more than make up the for the shortfall.
Meaning at some point in the near future (2050 IIRC), humanity will have mined all the lithium it'll ever need.
Also, in the same time frame, it'll be economical to mine our garbage dumps. Further reducing the need to extract raw materials.
Replies
"Recycling now recovers >95% of raw minerals"
Not of plastic - recycling rates are decreasing. This is largely due to the excess ethane begin produced as a by-product of US fracking.
The ethane is converted to ethylene, then to polyethylene as a cost below that of collecting, cleaning, and processing used plastic.
Source? These are big claims and the collective shouldn’t rely on your recall as fact.