The E-Waste Database

🌱 What is urban mining? Urban mining is the process of reclaiming materials from urban waste. A common form of urban mining involves recovering metals and minerals from e-waste. 🌱 Why is urban mining relevant for a circular economy? Urban mining can play a key role in the circular economy. There is a finite supply of raw materials on Earth. Through urban mining, it is possible to re-use materials. This notably limits (some of) the environmental impacts from disposing materials and having to extract or produce new materials. The extraction of virgin metals and minerals can, for example, damage ecosystems and cause pollution. By re-using metals and minerals from e-waste, these impacts or risks can be reduced or mitigated.[i] It is, however, important to note that the reclaiming of materials can come with its own impacts or risks. Examples of this include the environmental and health issues that can arise through the informal recycling of e-waste. Therefore, in addition to urban mining, sustainable design and repairs are essential for a truly circular economy. 🌱 Is urban mining widespread? There is currently a significant gap between the amount of raw materials found in urban waste and the potential amount of raw materials that could be recovered through urban mining. Most urban mining today involves melting down devices in a furnace and focuses on extracting only the most valuable metals – such as copper, silver, and gold. It is not uncommon to recycle only 10% of the material and discard the rest on landfills.[ii] 🌱 What is the value of the minerals found in e-waste? E-waste is “a huge sleeping resource”.[iii] For example, it is estimated that there are approximately 7 million unused phones in Switzerland alone and that the gold embedded in these is worth $10 million.[iv] In 2019, “[t]he value of raw materials in the global e-waste generated […] was estimated at US $57 billion”. Of this value, “most [was] attributed to iron, copper and gold components”.[v] Globally, recoverable natural resources from e-waste worth US$ 62 billion were left unaccounted for in 2022. While these resources are strategically valuable, they were dumped or wasted in huge quantities. The Global E-waste Monitor 2024 holds that “if countries could bring the e-waste collection and recycling rates to 60% by 2030, the benefits […] would exceed costs by more than US $38 billion”.[vi] 🌱 What role could urban mining play in the energy transition? E-waste contains materials needed for “strategic sectors such as renewable energy, electric mobility, [and] industry”.[vii] Rare earth elements are just one example of a material found in e-waste, which is needed for e-mobility and renewable energy technologies. Currently, only 1% of the global demand for rare earth elements is met through e-waste recycling. Through increased recycling or urban mining, countries could become less dependent on a select few countries for the rare earth elements they need for their future renewable energy technologies.[viii] Explore our module on urban mining here. [i] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/11/urban-mining-circular-economy-ewaste/ [ii] https://www.csis.org/analysis/canary-urban-mine-environmental-and-economic-impacts-urban-mining; https://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/isi/dokumente/ccn/2020/Fraunhofer_ISI_Urban_Mining.pdf; https://www.climateforesight.eu/articles/raw-materials-urban-mining/; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344922006723; https://www.jumpstartmag.com/what-is-urban-mining-and-why-are-more-companies-not-doing-it/; https://ewastemonitor.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Global-E-waste-Monitor-2017-electronic-spreads.pdf [iii] https://weee-forum.org/ws_news/invisible-e-waste-almost-10-billion-in-essential-raw-materials-recoverable-in-worlds-annual-mountain-of-electronic-toys-cables-vapes-more/ [iv] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/11/urban-mining-circular-economy-ewaste/ [v] https://weee-forum.org/ws_news/invisible-e-waste-almost-10-billion-in-essential-raw-materials-recoverable-in-worlds-annual-mountain-of-electronic-toys-cables-vapes-more/ [vi] https://ewastemonitor.info/the-global-e-waste-monitor-2024/ [vii] https://weee-forum.org/ws_news/invisible-e-waste-almost-10-billion-in-essential-raw-materials-recoverable-in-worlds-annual-mountain-of-electronic-toys-cables-vapes-more/ [viii] https://ewastemonitor.info/the-global-e-waste-monitor-2024/

🌱 What are conflict minerals? In many conflict areas or politically unstable regions, the trade of minerals may be used to purchase weapons and fund armed groups. This trading may be linked to corruption and money laundering, and it can cause human rights abuses. The minerals traded in this context are therefore referred to as “conflict minerals”. 🌱 What are 3TG minerals? Tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold – collectively referred to as “3TG” – are common conflict minerals. These four minerals are also a key focus in legislation on conflict minerals. Both the EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation and Section 1502 of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act of 2010, for example, cover the 3TG minerals. 🌱 Where do conflict minerals come from? Conflict minerals can originate from any country or area that is “conflict-affected” or otherwise “high-risk”. The EU, for example, considers two main factors when assessing if a mineral is a conflict mineral. The first factor is whether the mineral being traded is “in high demand, either locally, regionally or globally”. The second factor is whether the area the mineral originates from is “either suffering from armed-conflict, such as civil war, a state of fragile post-conflict, or witnessing weak or non-existing governance and systematic violations of international law, including human rights abuses”.[i] That said, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries are commonly considered key “high-risk” countries and are hence the focus of many current laws. 🌱 In what products are conflict minerals found? Conflict minerals can be found in electronics, cars, and jewelry. As 3TG or conflict minerals may be used in renewable energy technologies, there is also a concern that the “failure to engage in responsible sourcing practices could increase conflict and fragility risks along the green energy supply chains of these key minerals and metals, stalling or reversing local development gains”.[ii] 🌱 Where can companies find guidance on conflict minerals? Many countries or regions have laws on conflict minerals in place. For example, the EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation as well as Section 1502 of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 provide a legal framework for the trade of conflict minerals. More broadly, companies can find guidance on conflict minerals in the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. Explore our module on conflict minerals here. [i] https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/development-and-sustainability/conflict-minerals-regulation/regulation-explained_en [ii] https://www.iisd.org/story/green-conflict-minerals/

🌱 What are precious metals? Metals that are rare and have a high economic value are often called “precious metals”. These metals can be valuable due to their scarcity or their use in industrial processes. They can also be valuable because they have been used as a currency or to store value throughout history.[i] The following eight metals are typically considered as precious: gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium.[ii] 🌱 What are precious metals used for? Precious metals may be used as currencies or as assets for investment purposes. They are also often used in jewelry or industrial processes.[iii] Precious metals “are widely applied in [industrial] fields due to the[ir] distinct physical and chemical properties, such as catalytic activity, good electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance”. Over 90% of the precious metals used industrially are used by the electronics and catalyst industries. The electronics industry uses gold and silver “as contacts, bonding wires and switches” and palladium in the hard disk drives of computers. The catalyst industry uses precious metals as “active components” within catalysts. These catalysts are commonly "used in automobile emission purification, oil-refining, chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals”.[iv] 🌱 What role do precious metals play for the energy transition? The six so-called “platinum group metals” (or PGMs) – which are platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium – are thought to play a key role in the energy transition.[v] They are, therefore, also listed on several countries’ lists of critical raw materials.[vi] Platinum group metals are, for example, used in fuel cells[vii] and found in the “computer chip[s] for the digital control of a power plant”.[viii] 🌱 Where can precious metals be found? The overall “concentration of precious metals in [the] Earth’s crust is extremely low”.[ix] Platinum group metals, for example only “occur in mineable quantities in a very few locations globally”.[x] The largest reserves of platinum group metals are currently found in South Africa and Russia, and these two countries are also the largest primary producers globally.[xi] Given the scarcity of precious metals, it is unsurprising that “the reserves of precious metals falls short of the production globally”.[xii] As so few platinum group metals are left in the ground, “a mature recycling network and substantial recycling capacity” has been established globally.[xiii] Learn more about different raw materials here. [i] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/preciousmetal.asp [ii] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/preciousmetal.asp [iii] https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/metals/what-are-precious-metals-and-precious-metals-alloys/ [iv] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344918304166 [v] https://anemel.eu/2024/09/21/deep-dive-the-importance-of-critical-raw-materials-for-a-cleaner-future/ [vi] https://www.royalmint.com/invest/discover/platinum-news/platinum-recognised-as-a-critical-mineral-by-us-europe-and-china/ [vii] https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions/executive-summary [viii] https://energiesysteme-zukunft.de/en/topics/metals-for-the-energy-transition [ix] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344918304166 [x] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/04/what-we-can-learn-on-critical-metals-circularity-from-the-platinum-metals-group-industry/ [xi] https://rmis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/rmp/Platinum-Group%20Metals; https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/sites/freiex/LCA_1_Basic_Knowledge/FACT_SHEET_Critical_Raw_Material_in_the_EU.pdf [xii] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344918304166 [xiii] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/04/what-we-can-learn-on-critical-metals-circularity-from-the-platinum-metals-group-industry/