A USD2.3 million European Union (EU) LIFE (financial instrument for the environment) funded project – the Critical Raw Material Closed Loop Recovery – will explore opportunities for obtaining critical raw materials (CRMs) and precious metals from old e-waste.

The project, which will run for three and a half years, aims to use curbside collections, retailer take-back programs, and postal returns to recover CRMs. Increasing the recovery of CRMs by 5% from consumer electronics and appliances is the goal.

The EU joins the UK’s Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP) with the Knowledge Transfer Network, Wuppertal Institute, the European Recycling Platform, and the European Advanced Recycling Network to facilitate the project.

Recycling insight

In August this year, an investigation funded by theEU reported that Europeans disposed of only 35% of electronic waste properly in 2012 – 3.3 million of 9.45 million tons. The rest wound up in landfills or black market sales and exports, causing both economic and environmental problems.

Therefore, CRM Recovery project “will explore viable alternative commercial streams that boost the economy, and sustainable solutions that reduce reliance on the earth’s natural capital and the need for mining raw materials,” according to green business publication Environmental Leader.

There is much opportunity in e-waste recycling, as the global e-waste market is projected to grow to USD5.04-billion by 2020. The collection methods that the EU LIFE project will use to recover CRMs will boost these projections, and show promising methods for how other areas of the world – such as the US – can participate in similar recovery projects.

The UK, Germany, Italy, and Turkey will all be representing different stages of recovery development during this project. Each country’s individual participation will allow for cross-comparison of findings.

Source: WasteDive