Highlights
- Lead plays a crucial role as a ‘collector metal’ in recycling technology elements and rare earth materials, challenging perceptions of its obsolescence.
- Lead-acid batteries remain essential for backup power in electric vehicles and stationary energy storage, with mature recycling infrastructure.
- Eliminating lead without viable alternatives could disrupt critical supply chains and undermine the green transition’s circular economy goals.
In a a provocative new post, Professor Koen Binnemans (opens in a new tab) of KU Leuven and its SOLVOMET Group (opens in a new tab) calls for a reevaluation of lead (Pb) as an essential enabler of the green transition and circular economy—challenging Western assumptions that brand the metal as obsolete and dangerous. The message is clear: demonizing lead jeopardizes strategic recycling systems vital for rare earth elements and technology metals.
While public perception and even parts of the research community push for blanket bans on lead due to its toxicity, Binnemans underscores a more nuanced and industrially urgent reality. Lead, he argues, can be safely managed in controlled environments and plays a central role in cleantech infrastructure, from low-voltage energy systems in electric vehicles to mature, closed-loop battery recycling processes.
The post points to the SOCRATES policy brief (opens in a new tab) by Bart Blanpain, Markus Reuter, and Annelies Malfliet, which highlights lead's metallurgical role as a "collector metal"—a critical component in recycling streams for technology elements such as indium, tin, antimony, bismuth, tellurium, silver, and even rare earths derived from WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) and low-grade residues.
Professor Binnemans warns that turning away from lead risks unraveling one of the most robust and industrially integrated recycling systems in Europe. Belgian firms like Umicore, Campine, and Aurubis Beerse—global leaders in lead metallurgy—anchor this circular supply chain, offering a proven blueprint for integrating waste recovery into the rare earth element and broader critical mineral ecosystem.
Lead-acid batteries, too often dismissed as outdated, are in fact essential backup power units in most electric vehicles and serve a growing market in low-cost stationary energy storage—especially in off-grid and rural applications. With mature, high-yield recycling infrastructure already in place, lead-acid batteries present a stark contrast to the fragile, costly, and often polluting LIB (lithium-ion battery) recycling systems.
Implications for the West
The Western push to eliminate lead without a viable industrial substitute threatens a critical supply chain lever. Policies driven by environmental optics rather than metallurgical pragmatism could decouple rare earth recovery from proven, scalable recycling streams—just as the EU and U.S. seek to break dependence on Chinese supply.
Rare Earth Exchanges urges policymakers and investors to at least understand Professor Binnemans’ call. Safely-managed lead metallurgy should be embraced—not banned—as a strategic asset in the rare earth and technology metal value chain. The green transition will fail without the circular backbone that lead-enabled systems quietly uphold.
Sources
Binnemans, K. (2025). LinkedIn post.
SOCRATES Policy Brief: https://lnkd.in/eTMbSSAU (opens in a new tab)
KU Leuven – SIM², SOLVOMET R&I Centre.
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