Casey McNeil: Recycling REEs Is His Game

Casey McNeil, the founder of REEcycle, has so far raised $130,000 in non-equity staked cash and $160,000 in in-kind prizes but with his near-revolutionary technology, he is set to raise more funds from investors. His company establishes mutually beneficial partnerships with several companies mainly by providing these partners with reliable and profitable revenue streams while REEcycle secures a steady stream of rare earth elements (REE).

The result: REEcycle provides its United States-based customers with a more sustainable, secure and affordable supply of critical REEs. The recycling company’s customers range from government stockpiling agencies to REE wholesalers, all of which have benefited from the company’s innovative recycling of the elements used in several industries. Emphasis must be made that REEs are crucial components in the manufacture of a wide range of technologies including cell phones, hard drives, audio speakers, electric motors, wind turbines, and national defense systems.

REEcycle has created a more effective and efficient method of recycling the permanent magnets present in these products. These magnets, which are known as the strongest of its kind on Earth, contain neodymium and dysprosium; these REEs are highly valuable materials that are extracted in a more eco-friendly method from the electronic waste collected by REEcycle from its partners.

The recycling of these two highly valuable materials has another benefit – the United States has the opportunity to import lesser quantities of these elements from a single country (i.e., lesser dependence). Currently, China supplies 90% of the world’s neodymium and dysprosium production.

The company recycles the REEs by collecting the discarded magnets from the electronic waste. The external nickel-plating is removed, the remaining materials grounded, and then placed into a recyclable solvent mixture. The magnets’ iron and boron components are separated from the neodymium and dysprosium, which are packaged for shipment to U.S. manufacturers. The secret behind the innovative method is the patented solvent.