Even today, most of the iron we produce is recycled. I could certainly imagine that a post-apocalyptic civilisation would get basically all of its iron by scav

Even today, most of the iron we produce is recycled. I could certainly imagine that a post-apocalyptic civilisation would get basically all of its iron by scavenging from the giant hulks of rust we'd leave behind. I'd imagine elements that end up being used in very small quantities would be trickier. Reclaiming materials from phones isn't economically viable even with our tech today.