Waste efficiency: Better waste management, Waste efficiency: Promote the materials cycle, Reduce ecological footprint, Raised awareness/behavioural change,  Increase technological readiness

Direct connection to:

• System level circular economy approaches in batteries
• Reduction of raw materials, waste and integration of secondary materials

Climate and Geography:

The collection, sorting, and recycling of end-of-life products containing CRMs can take place in all European climates and geographies

Urban form and layout:

The separation of CRMs involving pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes can produce emissions that are harmful to human health and the environment, these activities require specific industrial zones. Dense urban forms can facilitate recovery of end-of-life products.

Technical aspects/ infrastructure:

Recovering and sorting end-of-life products requires significant infrastructure at the urban level. The refining of CRM's is also often technically challenging and energy/ chemically intensive, and will require major new investments to reach scale across Europe.

Policy and regulatory/ legal environment:

The EU Waste Framework Directive sets standards across member countries for waste treatment and incentivizes recycling where practicable. Efforts to recovery secondary CRMs will also be bolstered by the EU Critical Raw Materials Act which is expected to be ratified in 2023, with an emphasis on boosting domestic recycling capacities. The EU directives on batteries and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) also contain measures related to extended producer responsibility for end-of-life products that can promote the recovery of CRMs.

Funding and financing:

Funding for investments in the circular economy is available via numerous EU programmes including: Horizon Europe, Regional cohesion policy, the LIFE programme, and the Single Market Programme

Economic and social context:

High income countries consume more products containing CRMs, thereby generating higher secondary feedstocks of these materials. Moreover, successfully recovering end-of-life products from consumers requires socializing the general public to the value of the materials within the goods they consume, and raising awareness about the need to return these materials to producers.

Project governance and implementation modalities:

Active citizen engagement is key to ensuring proper recovery of CRMs from hibernating or end-of-life devices. Municipalities should also work with municipal waste collection services and private actors to ensure proper sorting and recycling facilities are available at the metropolitan level.

Climate and geography: 

The collection, sorting, and recycling of end-of-life products containing CRMs can take place in all European climates and geographies

Urban form and layout:

Low density urban environments are correlated with higher costs of waste collection. However, it may be hazardous to process and recycle metals within close proximity to human residences.

Technical aspects/infrastructure:

Materials with a highly dispersed use, such as is typical of Rare Earth Elements and minor metals in specialty alloys, are very energy intensive to recover, making recycling cost prohibitive. Few companies in Europe have the technical capacity to separate and refine rare earth elements, and to perform other specialized refining processes such as refining battery grade metals.

Policy and regulatory/legal framework:

Large quantities of WEEE continue to be exported illegally out of the EU into jurisdictions with low environmental standards and recycling infrastructure. The stringent workplace exposure limits for many CRMs (such as cobalt) makes it challenging to operate recycling facilities for batteries within the EU.

Funding and financing:

Companies are reluctant to invest heavily in recycling facilities for many CRMs due to the long lifespan of many products containing them, meaning end of life battery or permanent magnet feedstocks will not become widely available for the next decade. As the materials used within state-of-the-art batteries and permanent magnets are rapidly evolving, there is little certainty of demand for recycled materials 10 years from now.

Economic and social context:

An economically viable recycling business must also confront highly volatile global commodity markets, that will cause instability in their profitability. Consumers also lack knowledge of how best to return their CRM containing products at end-of-life, leaving many materials in hibernation.

Project governance and implementation modalities:

The logistics related to effective collection and sorting of CRM containing materials continue to be a major challenge limiting their effective recovery.

For certain particular materials, recycling may have a higher emissions footprint than producing primary material (depending upon the metallurgical route chosen in each scenario). Recycling can also produce negative local effects including the discharge of GHGs and other harmful pollutants into the air from smelters, or the possible discharge of hazardous chemicals (such as strong acids) from hydrometallurgical plants.

• https://www.susmagpro.eu/
• https://www.orano.group/en/news/news-group/2021/july/orano-and-its-industrial-partners-launch-a-pilot-project-for-the-recycling-of-electric-vehicle-batteries
• http://www.urbanmineplatform.eu/homepage

GHG emissions avoidance (e.g., by removing the need for energy consumption or by reducing the trip length) (%CO2e)

Total capital requirements per unit of output (EUR/unit)

Total annual operational costs per unit or per energy output (EUR/unit or EUR/MJ)

• Supporting municipalities to monitor resource flows in line with impact targets and measurement processes
• Capacity building and engagement with municipalities to identify and co-create circular solutions and roadmaps
• Capacity building for city officials to understand urban metabolisms and circular solution opportunities
• Urban metabolism mapping
• Circular Life Cycle Assessment/Analysis for material and products