American Defense Should Champion Recycling To Compete With China
On the road from Beijing to Xiong’an, China’s unfinished administrative center of the future, it's easy to ascertain what China treasures. Billboards line the train and the main road, showcasing China’s accomplishments, economic vitality, and technological prowess rather than consumer products. New military jets, AI, biotech, space travel, and computers feature prominently. There is also something unexpected: Aluminum and refining. The billboard urges appreciation for all Chinese metal refining, especially in nearby Shanxi.
Few developments have reshaped the global economy more profoundly than China's systematic pursuit of dominance across critical mineral supply chains. While public attention often focuses on rare earth elements, Beijing's strategy extends much further. Today, China occupies commanding positions in the refining and processing of aluminum, copper, tin, lithium, graphite, cobalt, rare earths, and a host of other industrial inputs that underpin the modern economy. China dominates the stages of production in which raw materials become indispensable components of advanced manufacturing. All industrial policy, adaptations, planning, and investments begin there.
China’s strategy reflects an ambitious long-term vision. Whoever dominates the processing of critical minerals holds leverage over the industries that define the twenty-first century. Electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure, semiconductors, aerospace manufacturing, telecommunications equipment, and advanced weapons systems all begin with refined metals. China recognized earlier than most that controlling these foundations would provide economic influence that extends well beyond trade.
Washington has responded accordingly. Executive orders, Section 232 tariffs, critical minerals investigations, and new industrial policies and global engagements all reflect a growing recognition that dependence upon foreign processing represents a strategic vulnerability. Yet much of the public conversation and policy planning continues to revolve around traditional concerns. Where can America permit another mine? Which country can supply another input? How can the U.S. compete for mineral concessions abroad?
These will remain important questions. Expanding domestic extraction, diversifying imports, and strengthening partnerships with friendly producers are all necessary components of a serious strategy. Competition with China, however, demands a broader engagement. Supply chains contain value at every stage, and policymakers are increasingly recognizing that what happens after consumption deserves as much attention as what occurs before production.
That realization is quietly transforming how Washington and investors view recycling. It may also change partisan perceptions about recycling in the future. For decades, recovering industrial materials was framed primarily as an environmental issue. Reducing waste, limiting landfill use, and lowering emissions dominated the discussion. Those objectives are critical; however, recycling is increasingly becoming a national security policy.
Every ounce of metal recovered from existing products represents material that doesn’t have to travel through supply chains controlled or influenced by China. Every improvement in collection rates strengthens domestic manufacturing while reducing exposure to geopolitical disruptions. Instead of viewing discarded goods as waste, governments are beginning to regard them as strategic reserves already sitting inside the national economy.
Investors should pay close attention to this shift. As Washington places greater emphasis upon supply chain resilience, businesses involved in collection, processing, remanufacturing, logistics, and materials recovery may position themselves at the intersection of industrial policy and national defense.
Aluminum provides perhaps the clearest example. It is indispensable for fighter aircraft, naval vessels, armored vehicles, satellites, drones, missiles, and countless civilian industries. It is also in soda cans. Yet American primary smelting capacity has steadily deteriorated over the past two decades. Only a handful of facilities remain operational, while imports satisfy a substantial share of domestic demand. Constructing additional smelters would require billions of dollars, years of permitting, and enormous quantities of electricity.
Fortunately, there is a more immediate solution. A federal Deposit Return Scheme would dramatically increase the recovery of high-quality aluminum already circulating throughout the economy. Recycling requires only a fraction of the energy consumed by primary production, while secondary facilities can be constructed far more rapidly than entirely new smelting operations. The constraint is not engineering; it is political and logistical.
This is not an experimental proposal. Multiple US states already have deposit return schemes, and numerous European countries already operate national deposit systems with exceptionally high return rates. Türkiye presents the most viable nationwide model, primarily due to its superior financing framework. It eschews public funding in favor of private capital and an Extended Producer Responsibility framework.
The system works via QR codes, digital tracking, and widely distributed special “reverse vending machines.” Citizens deposit recyclables and receive refunds directly into digital wallets, allowing them to redeem deposits electronically rather than exclusively through retailers, making participation more convenient and improving collection efficiency. Rather than treating used containers as litter, the Turkish model treats them as valuable industrial inputs that remain within the domestic economy.
Nurullah Özturk is President of the Turkish Environmental Agency (Türkiye Çevre Ajansı), a public agency affiliated with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, established in 2020 to prevent environmental pollution, support the country’s Zero Waste Initiative, improve resource efficiency, and catalyze the national DRS program. In an interview with Forbes, he said:
“DRS is an important policy instrument that is equally significant for Türkiye’s domestic technology sector. Rather than relying on a single equipment supplier, Türkiye has adopted a fully competitive approach. Over the past two years, several Turkish manufacturers have successfully completed the required certification processes and now produce reverse vending machines domestically. Many are also targeting export markets, creating an entirely new industrial ecosystem for recycling technologies…This transforms the principle of “the polluter pays, the recycler benefits” into a sustainable economic model rather than simply an environmental slogan.” Özturk added that once fully operational, the system is expected to add at least $1 billion annually to the Turkish economy, at no cost to taxpayers, by keeping valuable raw materials at home.
A modern DRS can serve as industrial infrastructure, strengthening domestic supply chains without burdening taxpayers. It’s not just aluminum that can be recycled. Lithium presents another opportunity readily accessible to American consumers. Advanced batteries have become essential for consumer electronics, electric vehicles, military systems, and grid-scale energy storage. Yet millions of spent batteries enter waste streams each year despite retaining recoverable material, and many simply hoard batteries rather than properly dispose of them. A comprehensive national battery recycling initiative would establish standardized collection networks, expand processing capacity, and create reliable feedstock for domestic refiners. Instead of allowing strategic resources to disappear into landfills, America could transform discarded batteries into a recurring source of industrial supply.
Copper deserves similar attention. Modern civilization depends upon electrical transmission, and no energy transition can occur without enormous quantities of conductive wiring. Recovering additional copper from demolished buildings, obsolete appliances, aging infrastructure, and retired industrial equipment should become a national priority.
Tin, like copper, rarely makes headlines, although its importance spans the technology sector. Soldered tin connects electronic components inside nearly every semiconductor, communications device, defense platform, and industrial control system. Significant quantities remain embedded in electronic waste, which is frequently processed inadequately.
Expanding existing e-waste collection programs while improving recovery technologies will strengthen domestic access to lithium, copper, and tin, all essential for advanced manufacturing. Unlike many proposed industrial strategies, this one relies on much of the required infrastructure already in place. It simply requires expansion and better coordination. This doesn’t require a large expansion of government. The American system for recycling of car batteries and other lead-acid products provides a model that can be supplemented by a Turkish-style DRS system. Collection points located at retailers, municipal facilities, and other institutions could use modern tracking technology while relying on periodic large-scale pickups to feed domestic recycling networks.
These examples, by no means exhaustive, illustrate an important point. America does not need to reinvent the wheel. Existing recycling programs, established collection networks, and mature processing technologies already provide the foundation for a stronger critical minerals strategy. What is needed is scale.
Policymakers need not wait decades for new discoveries or massive extraction projects before improving supply security. Valuable materials already circulate throughout the economy every day. Recovering them more efficiently is one of the quickest ways to strengthen industrial resilience.
None of this eliminates the need for additional mining or international engagement. Recycling cannot satisfy every requirement of an advanced industrial economy. It can, however, reduce pressure upon vulnerable supply chains while extracting greater value from resources America already possesses.
There is historical precedent for this mindset. During the Second World War, Americans willingly surrendered pots, pans, and countless household items because those metals became indispensable for wartime production. The nation is not confronting that level of mobilization today, but the comparison illustrates how governments begin reassessing ordinary materials whenever strategic competition intensifies.
That reassessment has already begun. The U.S. is steadily securitizing recycling, viewing waste less as an environmental challenge than as an economic asset with military implications. Investors, manufacturers, and policymakers alike should recognize where this trajectory leads. The Turkish model shows that a modern DRS can be built quickly, funded privately, and treated as industrial infrastructure rather than environmental charity, and that is a blueprint Western countries can adapt. The countries that recover the greatest value from their own industrial ecosystems will enjoy stronger supply chains, greater resilience, and fewer vulnerabilities during an era when competition increasingly begins not on the battlefield, but inside the recycling bin.