JRC identifies key opportunities for critical raw material recovery

Waste from different sources, including batteries, vehicles and electrical equipment, has great potential for the recovery and recycling of critical raw materials, a new JRC report shows.

Critical raw materials are essential elements of key technologies, from electric vehicles and wind turbines, to drones and smartphones. Currently, the EU is highly dependent on third countries for their supply. As the demand for such technologies is expected to surge, this will put immense pressure on securing access to critical raw materials.

By improving waste collection and processing, the EU can recover strategic raw materials domestically. The production of secondary strategic and critical raw materials, as well as extending the lifetime of products, can reduce dependency on third countries and support the transition to a more circular economy.

A new JRC report identifies a list of products, components and waste streams that could have a significant circularity potential for critical and strategic raw materials, such as permanent magnets from wind turbines, cobalt and lithium in electric vehicle batteries, and aluminium parts in vehicles.

The list, a step forward under the Critical Raw Materials Act, will help EU countries prioritise key waste streams for recoverability and help identify gaps in current waste treatment systems. It also highlights challenges and opportunities for a more circular and strategically independent raw materials’ value chain.

The analysis highlights current gaps in treatment of waste from specific products. For example, small electrical and electronic equipment account for significant losses of strategic and critical raw materials: 46% of the total strategic and critical raw materials in these products is lost in collection. Yet, common household items, such as hard disk drives and cables could have a significant recovery potential, if well-collected and treated.

Moreover, the report shows that critical raw materials used in electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines - the very technologies which power the shift to cleaner energy - are often not sufficiently recovered, leading to a major loss of critical raw materials when these products reach the end of their life.

Similarly, permanent magnets used in wind turbines tend to get lost in bulk steel and aluminium waste flows, rather than being recovered separately, despite their strategic importance. Losses are projected to jump from 1.9 thousand tonnes per year in 2022 to around 45 thousand tonnes per year in 2030, when the first large wave of turbines reaches their end-of-life.

The Critical Raw Materials Act requires EU countries to develop national circularity programmes that target specific waste streams. This report supports the Implementing Act of Article 26 of the Critical Raw Materials Act, and helps governments put in place effective programmes by making it easier to spot gaps in existing legislation, processes and data, and to harness circularity potential.

By keeping critical and strategic materials within the continent, the EU can improve the circular economy and EU competitiveness, while reducing exposure to supply disruptions.