Reading into it more. They have the local capacity to process it but the scrap is being sold on the export market because the Chinese can under bid them. If they dont have material to meet the local capacity the plants could shutdown, destroying or “backfiring” on their existing capabilities.

In this case it does sound like the best course of action is to at least have enough scrap to meet local capacity before they export.

If they’re shipping it to China and back then it diminishes the environmental benefits, but I don’t know the actual logistics.

Could take this a step further and do plasmapheresis therapy to remove some from the blood but in the US it cost from 5k to 10k and insurance definitely won’t cover it.

I think a generic plug would be great but look at how fragmented USB specifications are. Add that to biology and it’s a whole other level of difficulty.

Brain implants have great potential but the abandonment issue is a problem that exists now that we have to solve for. It’s also not really a tech issue but a societal one on affordability and accountability of medical research. Imagine if a company held the patents for the brain device and just closed down without selling or leasing the patent. People with that device would have no support unless a government body forced the release of the patent. This has already happened multiple times to people in clinical trials and scaling up deployment with multiple versions will make the situation worse.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2818077

I don’t really have a take on your personal desires. I do think if anyone can afford one they should make sure it’s not just the up front cost but also the long term costs to be considered. Like buying an expensive car, it’s not if you can afford to purchase it but if you can afford to wreck it.

Another problem is abandonment. When the company goes under or the device becomes outdated and they no longer want to support it the device can’t be easily removed. If the device was fixing a disability, the person’s disability will be reinstated.