Economy ยท GS3
Critical-mineral recycling scheme
One line
The government reported 58 eligible companies under its incentive scheme for recycling critical minerals.
Summary
Recycling can recover lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, and other strategic materials from end-of-life products and manufacturing scrap, reducing import exposure and mining pressure.
PYQ pattern
UPSC can connect critical minerals with clean-energy technologies, strategic autonomy, circular economy, and environmental regulation.
Core notes
- Urban mining treats discarded products and waste streams as secondary resource deposits.
- Recovery quality, collection systems, safe handling, and domestic refining capacity determine the real benefit.
- Recycling complements primary mining; it cannot immediately meet all demand in a fast-growing market.
- Traceability and environmental standards are necessary to avoid unsafe informal processing.
Prelims lens
- Criticality reflects economic importance and supply risk, not simply geological scarcity.
- Battery recycling can recover several metals but requires chemistry-specific processes.
- Extended producer responsibility can support collection and recycling.
MCQ 1
Urban mining refers to:
- A. Mining only beneath cities
- B. Recovering materials from products, waste, and infrastructure
- C. Extracting groundwater
- D. Constructing metro tunnels
Reveal answerHide answer
B
Urban mining recovers valuable secondary materials from anthropogenic stocks.
MCQ 2
Which statement is correct?
- A. Recycling eliminates all need for primary minerals immediately.
- B. Criticality depends partly on supply-chain risk.
- C. Informal processing is always environmentally safe.
- D. Rare earths are fossil fuels.
Reveal answerHide answer
B
Economic importance and vulnerability of supply are central to critical-mineral classification.
Mains
Question, 10 marks, 150 words: How can mineral recycling strengthen India's clean-energy and strategic supply chains?
Approach:
- Explain demand from batteries, electronics, and renewable technologies.
- Discuss import risk and environmental gains.
- Identify collection, technology, standards, and informal-sector challenges.
- Suggest design-for-recycling and producer responsibility.