BRUSSELS, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Recycling and more efficient uses of rare earth minerals is the best conservation method available to the European community, a lawmaker said.
A committee examining energy and industry in the European community looked at how best to conserve rare minerals that help drive the European economy.
Rare minerals, such as gold and cobalt, are used in electronic equipment ranging from MP3 players to hybrid vehicles. Lawmakers said that apart from China's role as a mineral "superpower," recycling could provide the foundation for European consumers.
Reinhard Butikofer, a German member of the European Parliament and chairman of the energy committee, said recycling was a central component of European economic development.
"Protecting supplies of scarce raw materials would at best be a temporary answer to the problem," he said in a statement. "In fact, recycling and increasing resource efficiency is the name of the game."
Butikofer added that about 95 percent of the rare earth minerals used by the European community originate in China. Breaking that dependence, he said, would help the European community in the long term.
"We need not be dependent on any single country," he said. "For the transition let's find win-win solutions."
