The best way to meet growing demand for metals is for extraction companies to focus on recycling rather than increased mining, according to a report released last week by the United Nations Environment Programme. UNEP warned that demand for metals is likely to increase tenfold as developing economies emerge, putting severe stress on resources and bringing social and environmental consequences associated with mining. However, current recycling efforts focus on waste streams rather than reusing elements that have already been expensively mined, even though that can be cheaper. Extraction companies have the expertise to separate metals from ore, so they should be able to sort out valuable materials from products at the end of their lives, according to UNEP. "Recyclers increasingly seek the help and expertise of metal miners, who extract mineral ores often containing several metals and have developed ways and means of recovering the metals of interest via complex methods that are based on physical and chemical principles," said the report. For the full story, see http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0430-gen-mining-recycling.html.