Recycling of Tungsten Carbide tooling is critical to the long-term availability of the raw materials to make more carbide tools. Once your tools have served you well and can no longer be resharpened or repurposed you need to recycle the end mills, drills, routers, inserts, boring bars, burs and any other tools that are made using carbide. The carbide tools we are all using come from an ever-dwindling supply of wolframite and sheelite deposits in the earth. The Chinese are fortunate to have most of these mineral deposits within their borders. To ensure they have a worldwide monopoly they began purchasing the known reserves outside of their borders.
Right now the USA is reliant on recycling tungsten carbide as well as purchasing powders and finished materials from Chinese manufacturers. The good news is that companies within the US have the ability to recycle carbide in several different ways. This recycling technology allows us to continue to manufacture the best tungsten carbide products in the world.
It is important that you sell your scrap carbide to companies that will recycle the material here in the USA. Shipping the scrap to China for recycling only makes the problem worse.
There are almost no substitutes for carbide tooling on the market today.