Rare earth recycling must be part of our sustainability solution

In response to the recent Freakonomics article, The Rare Earth Conundrum:

Levitt missed one critical point. Even if China were to cut off our rare earth supply, the cars already on the road will still run. Old batteries — including those from all the cell phones, computers, tablets, etc. — could be still be recycled to extract rare earth. In other words, the total potential storage capacity from the rare earth that we already have will not diminish but will accumulate over time. If the recycling technology is yet not mature today, its development would be a gold mine to be explored. A complete sustainability solution should include the recycling of rare earth elements.