Found in everything from wind turbines and electric cars to MRI machines and mobile phones, rare earth magnets are an essential part of the technology we depend on.
That, plus their value, means there is lots of interest in recycling them when the machine they are part of reaches the end of its life.
The problem is when you crush, shred or shatter a super strong magnet, it just sticks to the metal of the recycling plant.
For more than a decade we have been reporting on a radical idea from the University of Birmingham that makes recycling rare earth magnets a real possibility.
Now that idea has left the laboratory and been developed into a commercial plant at Tyseley, on the outskirts of the city.