Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have pioneered a process that could enable the efficient recycling of rare-earth metals, which are found in many high-tech devices. Mining and purifying rare-earth metals is not only expensive and labor-intensive, but takes a devastating toll on the environment. The current methods for recycling them are wasteful and inefficient. The paper focused on one pairing in particular which could enable scientists to recycle rare-earths from compact fluorescent light bulbs.