All I want for Christmas is my critical raw materials

Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) has permeated into all aspects of our lives bringing prosperity to billions. We pin our hopes of achieving sustainability with our planet on green-technologies and other types of EEE which are yet to be deployed to the extent necessary. ‘Critical raw materials’ (CRMs) are vital components of modern EEE, particularly the highly miniaturised and integrated consumer electronics we enjoy today and emerging sustainable green-technologies for the future. Deploying green technologies to the extent required to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement will require ongoing sufficient supplies of CRMs, many of which face global supply bottlenecks. Without significant change to the way we manage waste EEE (WEEE/e-waste) and supply, manage and retain these resources through adoption of circular economy, access to CRMs may limit our ability to deploy the very technologies upon which we hang our hopes for the future of our planet.
Here we examine the role of CRMs in EEE drawing on examples we will all be familiar with at Christmas, highlighting problems with the way we currently design and manage CRM bearing products over their lifecycles, including the impacts of our own decisions and actions with regards to how we acquire, use, maintain and dispose of our gadgets. We then take a look at some of the most important emerging applications of CRMs for the future and potential solutions to our ongoing exhaustion of these important finite resources and the undesirable impacts upon the planet, society and economy.
16h00 SA time (14h00 UK time)

Zoom (Chaired from the University of Pretoria, South Africa)

Department of Chemistry, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Rd, Zoom (Chaired from the University of Pretoria, South Africa), Department of Chemistry, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Rd, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa