Circular Innovation for Critical Raw Materials Recycling and Reuse for PCBS, Permanent Magnets and Electronic Components

The European Union (EU) faces a critical dependency on imported Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) and Strategic Raw Materials (SRMs) essential to industrial value chains, especially within key sectors like electronics, renewableCIRCUIT4EU will support domestic Critical Raw Materials retainment as identified in the EU CRM Act (EU 2024/1252). Supporting the 2030 benchmark to obtain 25% of annual consumption from recycling sources. CIRCUIT4EU’s focus is to support achieving these goals and the wider strategic aims focusing on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. CIRCUIT4EU will enable selective management of Critical Raw Materials containing Printed Circuit Boards & Permanent Magnets & Electronic Components, to create a WEEE based circular value flow for reuse, refurbishment and recycling. Targeting 9 out of 34 Critical Raw Materials (Boron (B), Copper (Cu), Cobalt (Co), heavy & light Rare Earth Elements, Platinum Group Metals (PGM), Nickel (Ni), Antimony (Sb) and Tantalum (Ta)). Innovations will be piloted across 4 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment product groups laptops, Wifi-boxes, E-scooters and dishwashers, their 2 key components Printed Circuit Boards & Permanent Magnets, and their electronic components. The technology advancement ambition of CIRCUIT4EU is to advance 10 technologies to enable selective recovery, reuse, refurbishment and recycling to unlock their value. Technologies including robotics, desoldering, metallurgy, Digital Product Passports and AI quality & CRM characterisation. The 10 technologies will be advanced up to TRL 7. The socio-technical ambition of CIRCUIT4EU is to realise new market driven circular supply and value chains to enable desired long-term transition outcomes: 1) all WEEE flows across Europe have CRM + SRM visibility in real-time, and 2) a shift from a supply-side driven to a liquid demand-side market where refurbishers and recycler can place purchase orders for high CRM/SRM products/components to collection points.