The photo below is actually related to blog 2, the problem of under-investment in recycling rare earths. $300 million for EV battery recycling may be too much, but $0 for indium may be too little.
Rare Earth Mineral / Metal Mining and the Recycling Dilemma 2: Lithium and Indium
We need to be "small c" conservatives. "It doesn't take a genius to see the world has real problems, but it would take a whole roomful of morons to think [throwing government money] can fix it." (paraphrase from The Watchmen, 2009). Or better yet, yes, do fund these programs (at least to the degree government has subsidized mining and nuclear energy development), but make sure you have conservatives managing conservation.
The Rare Earth Mineral / Metal Mining and the Recycling Dilemma 1 took a critical "what could go wrong" with well-intentioned environmental policy to supply Electric Vehicles with recycled content Lithium batteries, focusing on a Wall Street Journal article on the shortage of Lithium batteries for planned "recycled content", and a more detailed focus on the need for more mining by Hans Eric Melin.
Government funding of Lithium recycling capacity ($200M in the "Inflation Act" budget) may not make a lot of sense if there's a shortage of batteries to recycle... or if it requires cannibalization of reuse markets. The hospital shouldn't build a morgue so big that it needs to toe-tag every patient to feed it.
But the history of nuclear power - funded enormously by government research - may make a different case.
To make the case that it does make sense to invest SOME government funding in recycling, I'll now focus on the opposite problem - I can't find a buyer for indium bearing "black glass" from our Good Point Recycling flat screen TV reuse and recycling program.
