Using historical U.S. copper data to consider future copper recovery from post-consumer electronic waste

Copper has been utilized since antiquity by humanity due to its various beneficial properties including conductivity, malleability, and antimicrobial effects allowing for a wide variety of profitable applications throughout history. This has increased the consumption of copper, both in the United States of America (USA) and globally. As copper consumption has increased, the grade of copper ores mined has decreased, and the energy required to mine copper has increased. The cost of copper is currently increasing due to this elevated demand. Although some copper is currently recycled, only about 33% of post-consumer copper was recycled in the USA in 2023. Post-consumer electronic waste is one potential source of copper to meet current demands as many electronics contain a higher mass percentage of copper than what is currently being mined. This suggests the potential for environmentally and economically beneficial copper recovery from waste electronics in order to meet current and future copper demand.