Mint and HP Turn E-Waste into Certified Copper, Forging a Circular Future

SYDNEY, Australia – March 03, 2026 – In a landmark achievement for the circular economy, e-waste technology firm Mint Innovation, in partnership with global tech giant HP Inc., has produced the industry’s first batch of certified closed-loop recycled copper. The high-purity metal, recovered from end-of-life HP printed circuit boards (PCBs), is now set to be integrated into new HP products, marking a pivotal step in the fight against the world's spiraling electronic waste problem.

The collaboration successfully demonstrates a sustainable and traceable supply chain, turning discarded electronics into a valuable resource for future manufacturing. The recycled copper will be used in the production of HP's EliteBook X G2 Series laptops and the upcoming HP EliteBoard G1a Next Gen AI PC.

This breakthrough arrives as the planet confronts an unprecedented e-waste crisis. The United Nations reports that a record 62 million tonnes of electronic waste are generated annually, a figure projected to climb to 82 million tonnes by 2030. With less than a quarter of this material formally recycled, vast quantities of valuable metals are lost, often in landfills or through environmentally damaging informal processing.

A Biological Solution to a Digital Problem

At the heart of this initiative is Mint Innovation’s proprietary biosorption technology, a low-carbon alternative to the traditional, energy-intensive smelting process. Conventional recycling involves heating crushed electronics to extreme temperatures, a method that not only consumes vast amounts of energy but also releases harmful emissions and can destroy other valuable components in the process.

Mint's approach is fundamentally different. Operating in city-scale facilities, the company uses a combination of chemistry and patented biosorption—a process that leverages natural biomass—to selectively recover and refine metals from complex waste streams. At its Sydney facility, shredded HP circuit boards are processed to extract high-purity copper sheets, proving the technology's commercial viability.

“We are the only company in the world capable of tracing individual batches of metal from the waste pile back to the new product at commercial scale, a level of transparency that traditional smelting simply cannot provide,” said Matt Bedingfield, President of Mint Innovation. “This collaboration with HP is more than just recycling; it is a blueprint for the future of supply chain security. We have proven that critical metals can be recovered, certified, and reused locally, eliminating the need to ship waste halfway across the world.”

Validating a Truly Circular Supply Chain

A critical barrier to widespread adoption of recycled materials in high-tech manufacturing has been the lack of verifiable traceability. To address this, the copper recovered through Mint's process underwent a rigorous independent audit by TÜV Rheinland, a global leader in testing and certification.

The material was certified against a suite of internationally recognized standards, including ISO 14021 for environmental claims, EN 15343 for recycling traceability, and ISO 22095 for chain of custody. This third-party validation confirms that the copper not only meets stringent quality requirements but also that its journey from waste to new product is fully traceable. This batch-processing capability allows Mint to offer what it calls "Recycled Metal as a Service" (RMaaS), a model where manufacturers can retain ownership of their strategic resources throughout the recycling loop.

For HP, the partnership is a tangible step toward its ambitious sustainability goals, which include achieving 75% circularity for its products and packaging by 2030 and reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. The company provided the electronic waste for the initial validation and worked across its supply chain to facilitate the necessary testing and traceability.

“We’re focused on finding practical ways to increase the use of recycled materials in our products, and that starts with the ability to verify where materials come from and how they perform,” said Stacy Wolff, Senior Vice President of Design & Sustainability at HP Inc. “Independent certification like Mint’s innovative process helps validate what’s possible and builds confidence as circular manufacturing continues to scale.”

Reshoring Resources and Building Resilience

The implications of this technology extend beyond environmental benefits to encompass economic and geopolitical security. The global demand for critical metals like copper is soaring due to the energy transition and digitalization, with some analysts projecting a potential 6 million tonne supply deficit by 2030. By creating a domestic source of high-purity metals from urban waste, Mint’s model helps mitigate reliance on volatile international supply chains and primary mining.

Following the success of its Sydney prototype, Mint Innovation is accelerating its global expansion with the construction of its first U.S. commercial facility in Longview, Texas. The project, representing an investment of over $15 million, is scheduled to launch in 2027 and will serve as a hub for the company's North American operations.

The Longview refinery is projected to process nearly 9 million pounds of printed circuit boards annually, recovering an estimated 2.2 million pounds of copper and 1,100 pounds of gold, among other metals. The facility is expected to create 28 direct, high-quality jobs within three years, providing a significant boost to the local economy.

By establishing operations in Texas, a major hub for technology and manufacturing, Mint is strategically positioning itself to serve a region with a high concentration of electronics producers. This move not only strengthens domestic access to critical materials but also creates a tangible, closed-loop system where the waste generated in a region can be transformed back into the raw materials needed to power its industries.