Dysprosium (Dy) recycling matters for one reason: most dysprosium demand is tied to permanent magnets, and those magnets sit inside assets with long lifetimes (EVs, wind turbines, industrial motors). That means primary supply still dominates in the near term, but recycling becomes strategically valuable as installed base grows and supply chains stay concentrated.
Despite a lot of attention, dysprosium recycling is still small versus primary production. USGS continues to describe rare earth recycling as limited, including recovery from permanent magnets.
This is not a "technology doesn't exist" problem as much as a collection, sorting, and economics problem. The feedstock is fragmented, and getting consistent magnet scrap at scale is harder than people assume.
This is the cleanest source because it's concentrated, relatively consistent, and already in the rare earth magnet value chain.
Typical streams:
This scrap tends to scale earlier than end-of-life recycling because it does not require consumer collection or disassembly infrastructure.
These are the "headline" sources, but they are slower to scale.
Common EoL sources:
The catch:
Magnets are often glued, coated, embedded, and mixed with steel and copper assemblies. Disassembly is labor-intensive unless product design and dismantling systems are built around it.
Dysprosium is usually a minor component in magnets, and that minor component is changing over time.
Many magnet producers have reduced Dy intensity using Dy-thrifting approaches such as diffusion-based methods rather than bulk addition.
That reduces Dy per kilogram of magnet in some applications, which is good for supply risk, but it can make Dy recovery economics less straightforward if you are trying to justify recycling purely on Dy value.
That demand-side pressure and substitution/Dy-thrifting is covered here: Dysprosium substitutes
Most recycling flows fall into one of these buckets. They differ mainly in how much they preserve the magnet material versus how much they break it down into chemical components.
This family of methods aims to recover magnet material with minimal chemical separation, then reprocess it into new magnets or magnet powders.
What it typically involves:
Why it matters for dysprosium:
If the starting magnets are Dy-containing, direct recycling can retain that Dy inside the recovered magnet material. Some industrial demonstrations have shown that recycled NdFeB magnet material can be upgraded and tuned, including via grain-boundary modification approaches.
Where it struggles:
This is the more traditional chemical approach: dissolve the magnet material, purify the solution, separate rare earths, then re-precipitate and calcine into oxides.
Typical steps:
Why it matters for dysprosium:
This route can yield separated dysprosium products (oxide) that slot back into the conventional supply chain. It fits buyers who want standardized chemical products rather than recycled magnet powders.
Where it struggles:
These methods use heat-driven steps to change phases, volatilize or convert compounds, or make leaching easier.
Examples you will see in the literature and pilot work:
Why it matters:
Thermal pretreatment can simplify downstream chemistry, especially for complex scrap assemblies. It can also help manage oils, polymers, and coatings that complicate wet chemistry.
Where it struggles:
Dysprosium recycling scales when three things happen at once:
Magnet recyclers need consistent volumes and known grades. Manufacturing scrap is the easiest to lock in. End-of-life feedstock needs a collection and disassembly system that does not collapse under labor costs.
If magnets remain buried inside assemblies with adhesives and mixed metals, recyclers pay a high "preprocessing tax" before they even start recovering rare earths.
Magnet supply chains are conservative. Even if chemistry is right, customers still require performance repeatability and traceability. This is why recycling can be technically proven but commercially slow.
Recycling does not bypass the core truth of dysprosium markets: separation and magnet-grade conversion are still the gatekeepers.
Direct recycling plugs back in at the magnet-material level (powders, re-sintered magnets)
Hydrometallurgy plugs back in as oxides that may still need conversion to metal/alloy for magnet customers
Hybrid routes can connect at either point depending on the flowsheet
That "where does it re-enter the chain" logic is covered on the supply chain page: Dysprosium supply chain
NdFeB magnet manufacturing scrap is the cleanest and most scalable source because it's concentrated, relatively consistent, and already in the rare earth magnet value chain. This includes grinding swarf, off-spec magnets, and process scrap from magnet plants.
The three pathways are: 1) Direct magnet recycling which preserves magnet material through hydrogen decrepitation and reprocessing, 2) Hydrometallurgical recycling which dissolves and chemically separates rare earths into oxides, and 3) Pyrometallurgical or hybrid routes using high-temperature processing.
End-of-life magnets are often glued, coated, embedded, and mixed with steel and copper assemblies. Disassembly is labor-intensive unless product design and dismantling systems are built around recyclability. Collection infrastructure and feedstock consistency are major challenges.
The collection problem is the real bottleneck. Dysprosium recycling scales when three things happen: reliable feedstock contracts, standardized dismantling and sorting systems, and customer qualification and offtake agreements for recycled materials.