Urban mining and recycling of waste materials including cremated remains can serve as an alternative source of precious metals to reduce dependence on traditional mining and imported raw materials

"The World Economic Forum has noted that harvesting materials from e-waste can generate substantially less carbon dioxide than extracting fresh minerals through conventional mining."

"The Japanese Ministry of the Environment says recovering and processing resources that might otherwise be treated as waste is one way to reduce Japan's dependence on imported raw materials. Japan's experience with urban mining shows that useful materials can also be found outside traditional mines."