The E-Waste Column no. 201

Jun 10

3 min read

Today, we are looking at the final report of the “Future Availability of Secondary Raw Materials” (FutuRaM) consortium from 26 May 2026, which mapped critical raw materials in Europe’s urban mine.

🌱 What critical raw materials are in Europe’s urban mine?

Europe’s urban mine contains metals, minerals, and raw materials that are deemed “essential for strengthening supply security, supporting the clean-energy transition, and reducing environmental impacts”. In 2022, products containing 5.2 million tonnes of critical raw materials were placed on the European market. At the same time, 2.1 million tonnes of critical raw materials were embedded in European waste and only 1.4 million tonnes of critical raw materials were recovered from Europe’s waste. In practice, this means that there is a considerable gap between the consumption rates and the recovery rates for critical raw materials in Europe.

🌱 How is Europe currently losing raw materials through e-waste?

According to a study led by the WEEE Forum and conducted by researchers in the FutuRaM consortium, Europe is currently losing large quantities of valuable raw materials through both compliant and non-compliant recycling systems. This is largely due to poor collection systems, illegal waste exports, and informal recycling practices. While Europe is considered to be a global leader in the management of e-waste, close to half of its e-waste is treated outside of compliant recycling systems. What is particularly notable is that “some of the most valuable materials are the least likely to pass through formal recycling systems” in Europe. This is because “the market value of elements such as gold drives diversion of products into informal and often untracked flows”. It is also worth noting that large amounts of black mass (i.e. partially processed battery material) are exported to be processed further outside of Europe, and therewith many valuable resources from waste batteries are not recovered in Europe.

🌱 Can Europe meet its raw material demands through its waste?

According to the FutuRaM study, Europe could meet “as much as 56% of [its] primary raw material demand” by 2050 by recycling and recovering critical raw materials from its waste. The study mapped the quantities of critical raw materials found in discarded electronics, batteries, vehicles, industrial waste and demolished infrastructure across the EU’s 27 member states, as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK.

🌱 How much raw materials could be recovered by 2050?

Digitalization, electrification, and the increased deployment of renewable energy are considerably accelerating the volume of products containing critical raw materials being placed on the European market. Therefore, the amount of critical raw materials embedded in products and placed on the European market is estimated to rise to between 8.4 and 12.2 million tonnes annually by 2050. In line with this, the amount of waste in Europe containing critical raw materials is estimated to reach 5.2 to 6.4 million tonnes annually by 2050, and the amount of critical raw materials recovered in Europe from waste could reach 4.7 to 5.7 million tonnes annually by 2050. Concretely, this means that recovery could grow as follows by 2050: “from about 0.9 million tonnes per year today to as much as 2.7 - 3.5 million tonnes” for aluminum; “from 0.3 million tonnes to as much as 0.8 - 1.4 million tonnes annually” for copper; “from much less than 1,000 tonnes today to 30,000 - 52,000 tonnes per year” for lithium; “from about 1,000 tonnes to as much as 25,000 - 40,000 tonnes annually” for cobalt; and “from about 4,000 tonnes to more than 103,000 - 171,000 tonnes per year” for nickel.

🌱 What is the significance of recovering raw materials?

From a climate perspective, it is worth noting that between 81 Mt and 273 Mt CO₂ equivalent emissions could be avoided per year by 2050 by recycling the critical raw materials found in Europe’s urban mine. (For reference, the direct emissions for processing all these materials are estimated to lay at around 71 Mt to 80 Mt CO₂ equivalents per year.) From a geopolitical perspective, reducing Europe’s demand for primary raw materials could reduce its reliance on material imports from other countries (such as Australia, China, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for various technologies – including batteries, electric vehicles, as well as solar and wind energy technologies.