Advanced recovery of critical raw materials from Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)

This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness’.

The destination supports the EU Green Deal^[1] and contributes to Europe’s competitiveness and sustainable prosperity by supporting the development of a more resilient circular economy in line with the EU Competitiveness Compass^[2], the announced EU Clean Industrial Deal^[3] and the EU Circular Economy Act.

It aims to increase market demand for secondary materials and establish a single market for waste, whilst enhancing Europe’s efforts to develop a single market for sustainable products. It will also support the implementation of the framework conditions set by the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy.

Furthermore, the destination aims to facilitate the emergence and uptake of innovative, circular and bio-based materials, products, processes and value chains that play a key role for the defossilisation (reduction of feedstocks of fossil origin), climate neutrality and strategic autonomy of our economy, in line with the new EU bioeconomy strategy as well as with the New European Bauhaus.

In addition, this destination supports several key EU policies including the industrial strategy, the European Chemicals Industry Action Plan^[4] and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation^[5] and its working plan.

It also contributes to the EU Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative, the SME strategy, the communication on safe and sustainable by design framework, the sustainable blue economy, the European Ocean Pact^[6], the European Water Resilience Strategy^[7], the European Life Sciences Strategy, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, and the Nature Restoration Regulation.

Further support extends to the CAP, the EU forest strategy for 2030, the proposal for a Regulation on a forest monitoring framework, the EU proposal for a directive on soil monitoring and resilience, and the Vision for Agriculture and Food.

The destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions^[8].

Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in both Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) and Innovation Actions (IAs) falling under this destination. For additional information please see “Restrictions on the participation of legal entities established in China” found in General Annex B of the General Annexes.

Expected impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway contributing to “achieving healthy soils and forests, as well as clean air, fresh and marine water, whilst ensuring water resilience and the transition to a clean, competitive and circular economy and sustainable bioeconomy”, and more specifically to one or more of the following expected impacts:

• Improved climate change adaptation and mitigation through the transition to a more sustainable and circular economy and bioeconomy, underpinned by biotechnologies and sustainable industrial solutions, such as carbon capture and utilisation and recovery of materials, water and energy.
• Industrial competitiveness, sustainability and strategic autonomy are improved through the development of safe, sustainable, circular and/or bio-based value chains. This is done by promoting the efficient and circular use of secondary materials and water, fostering the multi-functionality of forests, and ensuring the sustainable supply of critical resources from land and sea.
• Living conditions for individuals and communities are improved through innovative, affordable and sustainable safe and sustainable by design products and services based on circular and/or bio-based solutions while demonstrating a reduction of environmental and climate pressures.
• Advanced societal transformation based on a systemic approach, as well as people’s involvement and integration of social sciences and humanities for fair, safe, sustainable and circular value chains, sustainable consumption patterns, environmental justice, gender equality and social inclusion.

[1] The European Green Deal - European Commission

[2] https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/competitiveness-compass_en

[3] Clean Industrial Deal - European Commission

[4] European Chemicals Industry Action Plan – European Commission

[5] Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation – European Commission

[6] The European Ocean Pact - European Commission

[7] Water resilience strategy - European Commission

[8] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• improved collection, sorting and recycling technologies that enhance significantly the recovery rates of strategic and critical raw materials from waste from electrical and electronic equipment, reducing the dependence on imported secondary and primary materials, and mitigating the climate and environmental impacts associated with their extraction, including biodiversity loss, by reducing the need for primary raw material extraction and minimising waste;
• strengthened waste market creation through the development of economically viable and environmentally sound recovery and recycling practices and technologies, with a particular emphasis on secondary strategic raw materials of lower costs and sufficiently high quality and/or purity, promoting a circular economy for electrical and electronic equipment.

Scope:

As Europe seeks to reduce its dependence on imported critical raw materials and mitigate climate and environmental impacts from extraction, there is a pressing need for innovative and economically viable recycling processes. With the rapid increase in electronic waste, improving recycling technologies is essential to support the EU's transition to a circular economy. The topic addresses an urgent need to enhance the recovery and recycling of critical raw materials (CRMs) from Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) due to the increasing global demand for these materials, which are essential for various high-tech and green technologies.

Proposals should:

• develop new and/or improve existing scalable processes and technologies (including AI, where relevant, and exploring innovative recovery and recycling methods – possibly bio-based, bio-inspired, or other breakthrough technologies) to efficiently collect, sort, recover and recycle strategic and critical raw materials including single components from electrical and electronic equipment waste, such as rare earth elements, precious metals and other valuable materials vital for the green and digital transitions, as well as possibly for EU aerospace and defence;
• develop standards, technologies and processes, that demonstrate how to ensure the quality, cost and safety of recycled strategic and critical raw materials for the creation of an economically viable and sustainable waste market, thus reducing the environmental footprint of such processes, supporting biodiversity preservation and sustainable consumption, optimising the efficiency and effectiveness, including by improved automatisation and synergies of recovering multiple CRMs, bringing down costs and time while ensuring that EU’s secondary raw materials can be competitive against imported primary and secondary materials.

The topic supports EU policies, particularly the European Green Deal, the EU Circular Economy Act, the Clean Industrial Deal, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Waste Directive, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Europe’s efforts to develop a single market for sustainable products. Synergies with Cluster 4, the European Partnership on Raw Materials and ongoing Cluster 6 projects are encouraged.

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