What makes the world around you?
Choose a material. Follow what comes from the Earth, how it changes, where it goes into use and what can return afterward.
Rare earths
From mineral deposits through concentration and chemical separation to the materials used in magnets, electronics and other applications.
Origins, transformations and recoveryLi · A rechargeable batteryLithium
From mineral-rich brines and hard rock to the batteries that store our energy. Explore lithium’s extraction, conversion, cell making, use and recovery.
Origins, transformations and recoverySi · A chip or solar cellSilicon
From quartz to chips and solar cells. Follow the transformations through silicon metal, purification, polysilicon and wafers that make modern electronics possible.
Origins, transformations and recoveryNaCl · Salt in food and industrySalt
From rock deposits, brines and seawater to food, winter roads and chemical manufacture. Explore the many paths of sodium chloride.
Origins, transformations and recoveryPp · A cardboard boxPaper & cardboard
From forests to fibre, mills to cardboard boxes, and collection back to paper making. Explore the places and transformations behind everyday paper.
Origins, transformations and recoveryPET · A plastic containerPlastic packaging
From chemical feedstocks to everyday packaging. Follow polymers through production, use, sorting and the processes that prepare them for another life.
Origins, transformations and recoveryCu · Copper wireCopper
From desert mines to refineries, power grids and recovered scrap. Explore copper’s changing forms and the connections that carry this metal around the world.
Origins, transformations and recoveryAl · An aluminium canAluminium
From bauxite to alumina to aluminium. Follow the mines, refineries and smelters that make the metal, and the recovered scrap that returns to production.
Origins, transformations and recoveryFe · A steel canIron & steel
From iron ore and scrap to the steel in our buildings, vehicles and tools. Explore the furnaces, steelworks and recovery systems behind it.
Origins, transformations and recoveryGl · A glass jarGlass
From mineral ingredients to furnaces, bottles and jars. Follow glass through manufacture, collection, sorting and remelting.
Origins, transformations and recoveryEe · An old computerElectronics
A device contains a world of materials. Explore the path from manufacturing and use to dismantling, sorting and the recovery of metals and other components.
Origins, transformations and recoveryOrg · Food scrapsFood & organics
From fields and food production to our plates and beyond. Explore how organic matter moves through consumption, collection, composting, digestion and disposal.
Origins, transformations and recoveryCa · A buildingConcrete & minerals
The material foundations of cities. Explore minerals, cement and construction, then follow what happens as buildings are repaired, replaced and demolished.
Origins, transformations and recoveryWd · Wooden furnitureWood
From forests to buildings, furniture and fibre. Follow wood through manufacture, long-term use, reuse, recovery and energy.
Origins, transformations and recoveryTx · A cotton shirtTextiles
From natural fibres and chemical feedstocks to fabrics and garments. Explore the production, trade, reuse and recovery systems behind what we wear.
Origins, transformations and recoveryC · Fuel in a vehicleFossil fuels
From oil fields and coal mines to refineries, power plants and everyday energy. Follow fossil fuels through production, trade, transformation and use.
Origins, transformations and recoveryMx · A bag of rubbishMixed garbage
What happens after the bin? Explore collection, treatment and disposal, and follow the solid material, gas and water moving through a waste system.
Origins, transformations and recoveryPP · A plastic lawn chairBulky rigid plastics
From polymer to durable product. Explore the use, collection and processing journeys of bulky plastics such as furniture and toys.
Origins, transformations and recovery