Europe must mine e-waste for critical materials

Europe's electric waste – discarded phones, laptops, servers, cables, appliances and other e-products – should be considered an "urban mine" of critical raw materials (CRMs) that could shield the region from supply security risks, says a new report.

The report by the WEEE Forum – a Brussels organisation that promotes a circular economy for electronic products that encourages de-pollution, processing, recycling, reuse and reporting of e-waste – acknowledges that geopolitical tensions and emerging trade wars are a threat to the secure supply of CRMs, and the European transition to a green and digital economy relies on a secure and stable supply.

Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) discarded in the main European economies every year contains around a million tonnes of CRMs, including "essential metals and minerals for powering green technologies, digital infrastructure, and modern defence."

That includes 29 CRMs like copper, aluminium, silicon, tungsten, palladium, and rare earths, according to the report, which notes that while around 400,000 tonnes are recovered, the remainder is lost to activities like scrap, landfill, incineration, and export.

It goes on to predict that the region's e-waste will rise from an annual volume of 10.7 million tonnes in 2022 to between 12.5 and 19 million tonnes by 2050, generating up to 1.9 million tonnes of CRMs in the same year.

"Europe depends on third countries for more than 90% of its critical raw materials, yet we only recycle some of them as little as 1%," said Jessika Roswall, the EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy.

"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."

At the moment, some CRMs like copper and aluminium are being recycled at scale, but others like palladium and rare earths are being discarded, underscoring the need for better design for dismantling, targeted collection, and advanced processing technologies.

Recovering silicon, silver, and rare metals from photovoltaic panels, the fastest-growing e-waste category, will be vital to Europe’s solar rollout, while EV chargers, batteries, and motors depend heavily on copper, rare earth magnets, and aluminium.

"Europe’s e-waste is not trash, it’s a multi-billion-euro resource waiting to be unlocked,” said Kees Baldé, scientific coordinator of the FutuRaM Project, which prepared the report for the WEEE Forum.

"Every kilogram we recover and any device we repair strengthens our economy, reduces our dependency, and creates new jobs, and getting the facts right is crucial for decision making, policy development to improve resource management."