The REEcycle story began at the University of Houston in 2012. Our chemist, Dr. Samarasekere, became interested in the idea of developing a way to recycle rare earth elements after reading two Department of Energy (DOE) reports on critical materials for future energy use. In 2013, he discovered a chemical reaction that extracts 15 of the 17 rare earth elements found in discarded electronic waste. Our team began working to bring this innovative process to market. We concentrated on neodymium and dysprosium, the two that the DOE ranked highest in both importance to clean energy and in supply risk.

From 2014 to 2016, REEcycle won top honors and national awards at business plan competitions hosted by many top universities. In late 2014, REEcycle won all three top prizes at the U. S. Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Prize Competition.

To date, we are the only recycling process that can safely and sustainably recover the highest amount of rare earth elements from electronic waste with the smallest environmental impact.