critical raw materials

The difference between potentially recyclable and actually recoverable material is at the heart of the European FutuRaM project, which has measured this gap in terms of tonnes of critical raw materials lost — also highlighting the measures needed to reduce this waste

The European FutuRaM project highlights urban mines as a potential resource dispersed across millions of products, components, and waste streams. It also identifies where interventions are needed to turn this potential into effective secondary supply

These estimates come from the European FutuRaM project and show how much WEEE Europe produces, how many critical raw materials it contains, and why this stream is increasingly considered a strategic resource

The goal of decarbonization and the energy transition will bring with it a massive amount of electrical and electronic waste. The European FutuRaM project provides some of the conceptual tools needed to ensure that this growth does not remain just a waste management issue, but also becomes a lever to supply energy—and critical raw materials—for the transition

Dependence on critical raw materials is not reduced solely through mining, trade agreements, or fast-track authorizations. It also requires building public and industrial capacity to understand the European “urban mine” as a strategic infrastructure

Italy is still far from closing the loop on the electrical and electronic waste (WEEE) supply chain and the valuable materials it contains. The greatest value lies precisely in the downstream stages that are missing in our country—and more broadly across Europe: refining, fine separation, recovery of elements present in small quantities, and production of materials and components for new industrial value chains

Interview with Giorgio Arienti, Director General of Erion WEEE, on the results of the European FutuRaM project

Interview with Pascal Leroy, Director General of the WEEE Forum (not-for-profit association of 49 WEEE producer responsibility organisations across the world)