Europe's ‘Urban Mine’ Could Supply 56% Critical Raw Materials by 2050

Europe's ‘urban mine’ could supply 56% critical raw materials by 2050

A EU-funded research project has just unveiled the first comprehensive map of Europe’s “urban mine.” It is an inventory of the wealth buried in discarded electronics, dead car batteries, demolished buildings, and rusted wind turbines.  The project called FutuRaM (Future Availability of Secondary Raw Materials) mapped 42 critical raw materials (CRMs) across 31 European countries.  It was found that by 2050, advanced recovery systems could reclaim…

How Europe's Waste Could Supply Over Half of Critical Material Demand – Report

Europe’s growing mountain of waste could become one of its most important sources of critical raw materials, according to a major new report.

Half of Europe's Critical Metals Could Come From Recycling. Right Now Almost None of Them Do

Start with the gap. In 2022, European products containing critical raw materials sent roughly 5.2 million tonnes of those materials through factory gates and into homes, vehicles, wind farms, and data centres. About 2.1 million tonnes eventually turned up in the waste stream. Of that, a little under 1.4 million tonnes was actually recovered. The rest, billions of euros worth of lithium, cobalt, rare earth metals, and much else besides, quietly v…

By 2050, Europe's Waste Could Provide More Than Half of Critical

In a landmark achievement for sustainable resource management and circular economy strategies, a consortium of EU-funded experts has completed the most exhaustive examination to date of Europe’s “urban mine.” This concept relates to the stockpiles of critical raw materials (CRMs) embedded within waste streams and in-use materials throughout urban environments — a vast reservoir vital for the green and digital transitions. The extensive research …