Reports sets out CRM strategy for Europe

New data on the rapidly expanding size and value of Europe’s ‘urban mine’ of electronic waste is set out in a report to mark International E-Waste Day (14 October).

Phones, laptops, servers, cables, appliances and other electronic products discarded annually on the continent contain about one million tonnes of critical raw materials (CRMs), the report says.

The Critical Raw Materials Outlook for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment report has been prepared by the FutuRaM (Future Availability of Secondary Raw Materials) consortium. FutuRaM is an EU-funded Horizon Europe project that develops the knowledge base for secondary raw materials across multiple waste streams.

Strategic approach

The analysis outlines how Europe can recover more CRMs by improving the collection, design and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment. It concludes that 10.7 million tonnes of WEEE is generated in a year, about 20 kg per person.

One million tonnes of CRMs are embedded in that stream. Compliant treatment recovers only 400 000 tonnes of CRMs, typically:

• 162 000 tonnes of copper
• 207 000 tonnes aluminium
• 1 000 tonnes silicon
• 1 000 tonnes tungsten
• two tonnes palladium

But the report finds that around 100 000 tonnes of CRMs are lost, largely rare earth elements in magnets and fluorescent powders. The bulk is mixed with metal scrap.

WEEE growth

By 2050, the total volume of WEEE in Europe is projected to rise to between 12.5 and 19 million tonnes annually. CRMs embedded in this stream are expected to grow from about one million tonnes in 2022 to between 1.2 and 1.9 million tonnes per year by 2050.

The analysis finds Europe could recover between 0.9 and 1.5 million tonnes of CRMs annually by 2050.

Suggestions for boosting recovery: 

• Expanding convenient take-back, retailer returns, and municipal points increases compliant flows.
• Design for dismantling.
• Prioritise product parts rich in CRMs
• Scale recycling capacity in Europe.
• Policy tools such as eco-design requirements and economic instruments

Mindset

Jessika Roswall, the EU environment commissioner points out that Europe depends on third countries for more than 90% of its CRMs yet recycles very little.

‘We need a real change in mindset in how Europe collects, dismantles and processes this fast-growing e-waste mountain into a new source of wealth. Trade disruptions, from export bans to wars, expose Europe’s vulnerability. Recycling is both an environmental imperative and a geopolitical strategy.’

Pascal Leroy, dg of the WEEE Forum, the organisation behind International E-Waste Day, adds: ‘Without critical raw materials, we cannot build the batteries, turbines, chips and cables that underpin Europe’s green and digital future. By mining our e-waste instead of the planet, Europeans have a powerful opportunity to build our own circular supply chains, reduce exposure to global shocks, and secure the building blocks of our future.’