Skip to main content
Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Objectives of the commitment

Primary Objective: To demonstrate viable approaches to increase the recovery of target materials (graphite, cobalt, antimony, tantalum, REEs, silver, gold, PGMs) from Display, Consumer Electronics, ICT and Small Household Appliances by 5% by 2020. Supporting objectives: 1) Environmental, economic & social benefits of an innovative circular economy for CRMs for the EU; 2) Innovative collection, reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE; 3) Key inputs to an EU infrastructure plan for collection and recovery of products, parts, components & CRMs from WEEE; 4) Innovative methods to support the 7th Action Programme, Priority Objective 5: Improved evidence base for environmental policy & Citizen support to improve transparency of fate of end-of-life products, parts, components and materials; 5) How through positive price mechanisms WEEE shipped to non OECD countries can be reduced.

Description of the activities

The project has a clearly defined set of activities supporting the delivery of the following:

1) EU Materials and CRM Flows Model: An analysis of all available EU material flows and development of a European wide model of the flow of (W)EEE through the recovery system.

2) Collection and Recovery Trials for CRM containing WEEE: in UK, Germany, Italy, Turkey via competitive tender: The trials aim to collect a minimum of 100 tonnes of WEEE and increase CRM recovery from WEEE by 5% by 2020.

3) Evaluation of Trials: Identification of design criteria for an optimised recovery of CRMs from selected product groups and demonstrating specific, quantified resource saving potentials in combination with economic assessments of the different trails across the trial regions.

4) Policy Recommendations: National policy interventions and EU policy options focusing on how and where the outcomes of the trials can be rapidly implemented across Europe, providing a clear pathway to achievement of the 5% material capture improvement expected result from this project by 2020.

5) Infrastructure Recommendations: Outline of the required collection and recovery infrastructure to secure resources and value in the participating nations and at EU level.

6) Dissemination & Communication: The project delivery is supported by extensive networking and dissemination activities, including project conferences, a policy workshop, presentations at external events and conferences, project website, project promotional material, newsletters, social media activity, a Layman's report, case studies, and collaboration agreements with other stakeholder networks.

Description of the expected impacts

Over the course of the three and a half year LIFE funded project, CRM Recovery aims to achieve a 5% increase in the recovery rate of CRMs from WEEE by 2020. The long term projected impact of the project on target material recovery is anticipated as 20% increase in the recovery rate of CRMs from WEEE by 2030. CRM Recovery will have a large-scale impact on the local economies of and population of member states. It is believed that the project will play a major role in securing growth and jobs for Europe and will bring major economic opportunities, improve productivity, drive down costs and boost competitiveness. The overall socio economic impacts will be linked to how the policy and pan-European infrastructure development recommendations are taken forward, evaluation of this will carry on beyond the end of this project. The CRM Recovery project will not only reduce raw material consumption substantially but add to economic value for those who get involved in recovering CRMs. Additional expected outcomes from CRMRecovery, include increased profits in EU businesses, improved business long term planning and asset management and assessment of the associated risks.

Coordinating organisation & role

Name of the coordinating organisation: Knowledge Transfer Network Ltd (KTN)Country: United KingdomEntity profile: OtherRole within the commitment:

KTN are the RMC coordinator and dissemination lead for the LIFE project, where KTN furthermore contributes to the policy options and infrastructure recommendations.

Other partners

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.

Name of the organisation: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Fraunhofer will lead the CFRP and GFRP recycling research.
Fraunhofer will perform corrosion tests on the developed materials.
Fraunhofer will work with CIDAUT on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project. Fraunhofer is the Quality Manager of the Consortium and will oversee deliverables and general reporting are produced with the best possible quality following agreed review standards.

Fundacion Cidaut

Name of the organisation: Fundacion Cidaut Country: Spain Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: CIDAUT will lead the research activities on materials recycling and compounding, implementing lab scale demonstrators of each process at its premises and, later, supporting end-users upscale the processes.
CIDAUT will perform mechanical tests, microstructural analyses, injection moulding capability studies on the developed materails, and will work with Fraunhofer on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project.

RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV)

Name of the organisation: RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV) Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: RWTH will implement the novel 3D Generative Preforming process (3D Fibre Spraying) that enables to create high-value long fibre-reinforced 3D preforms for thermoplastic and thermoset composites at low process costs (different kinds of yarn as a raw material, low tooling costs due to low cavity pressures). This cost effective technology allows to align the sprayed fibres in order to produce high-performance, engineered anisotropic products.

Universita' di Cagliari

Name of the organisation: Universita' di Cagliari Country: Italy Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: University of Cagliari is one of the leading European organization in the resin design and coupling with thermoplastic and thermose materials. University of Cagliari will support in the definition of the composite materials, both from CFRP/GFRP, ABS and Rare Earth composite material.

Relight

Name of the organisation: Relight Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: RELIGHT will work with ITRB to provide the research partners with residues for the recycled ABS supply and the REE recovery processes, including their HydroWEEE process as part of the processes to be studied and analyzed.

Piaggio Aerospace

Name of the organisation: Piaggio Aerospace Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - large company
Role within the commitment: Piaggio Aerospace is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Piaggio will assist in the compounds selection, provide Fraunhofer with specific corrosion requirements on business jet size aircraft, and will assess that the developed materials performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

Blackshape Aircrafts

Name of the organisation: Blackshape Aircrafts Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: Blackshape Aircrafts is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Blackshape will support to fulfill the requirements of the aeronautics industry on ultra light jet, light jet and trainer for Syllabus, and will assess that the developed alloys performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

KU Leuven

Name of the organisation: KU Leuven Country: Belgium Entity profile: Academia
Role within the commitment: KUL will collaborate on the balance problem studies and will lead the rare earth recovery research with the solvometallurgical and ionometallurgical processes.
KUL will also contribute to the final compounding selection.
KUL is the Dissemination Manager of the project, promoting that all partners are active on the project Dissemination.

FIDAMC

Name of the organisation: FIDAMC Country: Spain Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: FIDAMC is going to lead the Work Package on Compression Moulding with CFRP-enhanced materials. As part of the AIRBUS Group, FIDAMC will also be able to provide the input material.
FIDAMC successfully developed a 3D Printer of own design to serve the Aerospace Industry and will be supporting Smart Lab 3D Industries in its 3D printer design.

COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER

Name of the organisation: COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER Country: Canada Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Composite Innovation Center is one of the world leading organization in the field of Composite materials, both from carbon fiber and vegetal-based fibers.
Composite Innovation center has successfully implemented, at lab-scale, recycling processes for CFRP and GFRP.

Existing EU Contribution: Yes

Period to implement the commitment: from 01-09-2015 to 29-03-2019