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Witness: U.S. exports most e-waste; domestic hydrometallurgy plants could speed recovery of critical minerals
Summary
Mint Innovations and others told the subcommittee the U.S. generates millions of tons of electronic waste and currently exports much of it for refining; company described lower-cost, quicker hydrometallurgy plants to recover copper, gold, palladium, silver and battery materials domestically.
Witnesses and members highlighted electronic waste as a growing source of critical minerals and a national security concern, with testimony describing gaps in domestic processing capacity and proposals to boost U.S. refining and recovery.
Matt Bedingfield, president of Mint Innovations, told the panel, “We generated approximately 7 to 8,000,000 metric tons of e waste each year in this country.” He said more than 6,000,000 metric tons of that volume are disposed in landfills and that the country lacks domestic refining capacity to recover many of the valuable metals in recycled electronic components.
Mint Innovations described a hydrometallurgy process that the company says can recover copper, gold, palladium, silver and tin with smaller plants than traditional pyrometallurgical smelters. Bedingfield said, “Our plants cost approximately $30,000,000, generate no emissions, and take only 12 months to deploy.” He said the company’s Texas plant planned for Longview will consume up to 8,000 tons of printed circuit boards per year and bring recovered metals directly into U.S. supply chains.
Members noted the strategic implications: many reshoring manufacturers require domestically recovered metals and battery materials. Rep. Raul Ruiz and others cited programs in the bipartisan infrastructure law intended to support battery collection, materials processing and voluntary labeling. Several members urged directing federal funds to state programs that can incentivize domestic processing and to prioritize companies with onshore recovery capacity for government contracts.
Committee members also asked about data security and exports. Bedingfield described data destruction practices and said, “We shred to below 2 millimeters, which is NSA standard for data destruction.” Witnesses stressed that much e‑waste is exported to Europe and Asia where established refineries operate; panelists recommended federal grants, procurement preferences and pilot programs to help U.S. recyclers scale domestic recovery.
No formal action was taken. Members signaled interest in using grant programs and procurement rules to grow domestic e‑waste processing and to reduce export of recoverable critical minerals.
