System to map how much critical raw materials society ‘stores’ in products and waste

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute has studied how a national system that assesses the quantities of critical raw materials in products and waste can be designed. The aim is to facilitate the recycling of valuable metals that are currently not being recovered.

We still don't know very much about the volumes of critical raw materials that are actually stored in products and infrastructure around us – and that aren't being recycled. This complicates decision-making on both investments in new recycling facilities and the introduction of new policy instruments for increased circularity, says Christian Junestedt, expert on critical raw materials at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

Access to critical raw materials is crucial for Sweden's and the EU's transition, competitiveness and security. Climate-friendly energy technologies – wind turbines, solar cells and electric vehicle batteries – will continue to require very large quantities of both base metals and rare earth elements. This is an important reason for the introduction of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, which includes requirements for national mapping.

This is why it's important that flows of critical raw materials become more circular. According to Sweden's strategy for a circular economy, primary raw materials should, where possible, be replaced by resources that are used efficiently in circular flows, says Erik Lindblom, senior project manager at IVL.

In the project National Mapping System for Critical Raw Materials for Reporting and Sustainable Raw Material Supply (KR:RR), IVL has worked with stakeholders in the mining, metal and manufacturing industries to examine how a national mapping system for secondary critical raw materials could be designed. The system focusses on where different materials are located and when they may become available for reuse or recycling.

Our main conclusion is that it's already possible to introduce a national mapping system for secondary critical raw materials. A system can be developed by using public statistics on industrial goods production and imports and exports, and combining this data with material content and product lifespans. Initially, it will be necessary to make fairly rough assumptions about material content. But even if the estimated quantities are uncertain, information about orders of magnitude, and not least about whether quantities are increasing or decreasing over time, will provide a valuable common basis for both authorities and industry, says Erik Lindblom.

Such a system would create a common, transparent and long-term framework for monitoring developments, and would provide the basis needed to support investment in recycling. The project recommends that the next step should be a pilot study focusing on a limited number of product groups and critical raw materials where the data situation is relatively good and the societal benefits are assessed as significant.

We have had the opportunity to present the project's results to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, which has been working for a long time with circularity and the national supply of critical raw materials and which today has a government commission linked to Sweden's implementation of the Critical Raw Materials Act. We hope that the project's results can provide a useful basis for further work, says Erik Lindblom.

Download the report (in Swedish): Nationellt kartläggningssystem för sekundära kritiska råmaterial External link, opens in new window.

For more information, contact:
Erik Lindblom, erik.lindblom@ivl.se, tel. +46 (0)10-788 65 71
Christian Junestedt, christian.junestedt@ivl.se, tel. +46 (0)10-788 66 56

The work was carried out within the Impact Innovation programme Swedish Metals and Minerals, a joint initiative by the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas and Vinnova.