#aluminum
In a recent report, scientists from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) analysed how critical raw materials (CRM) are currently used in the EU and whether their use is in line with the principles of the circular economy.
The result is a data heavy report detailing reuse for work in extractive waste, landfills, electric and electronic equipment, batteries, automotive, renewable energy, defence as well as chemicals and fertilisers. It also references a number of good practices in each sector, such as in mining: ‘Building on the principle that all valuable metals contained in the ore should be recovered rather than ending up in e.g. the tailings dam, the BRAVO (Bauxite Residue and Aluminium Valorisation Operations) project in Ireland is targeted to the recovery of CRMs from bauxite residues (red mud). Using red mud as a source of critical raw materials (e.g. gallium, titanium, selenium, germanium, dysprosium and cerium) simultaneously brings environmental benefits due to the additional treatment of the red mud itself, which potentially causes environmental damage due to its alkaline content.’
These graphs taken from the report show some key figures on recycling CRMs in the EU.
However, Figure 8 does not yet show the level of circularity of CRMs in the EU-28. For materials used predominantly in the EEE sectors (i.e., gallium, germanium, indium, and dysprosium, provides an indication of the amounts of secondary raw materials functionally recycled to contribute to EU demand in 2012 (see purple coloured Sankey arrow in the Figure).
Read the report here: