From scrap to urban mining – According to expert estimates, the recycling rate of critical raw materials in the EU is only around 12 percent

(For subscribers.) If e-waste were recycled better than it is now, European industry could extract over a million tons of critical raw materials from scrap streams. Copper. Aluminum. Iron. Brass. Silver, Gold. Platinum. Metal nuggets climb conveyors and clink in real lairs like coins. Heaps of glittering metal accumulate, ready to be transported for use by the metal industry. This valuable metal was once mined from the earth's crust, but now it has become available from the most urban of mines: scrap cars, abandoned electronic devices, batteries and other products discarded by consumer society. One of Northern Europe's largest recycling facilities, the Stena Nordic Recycling Center in Halmstad, Sweden, is one such urban mine. It realizes the EU's vision of increasing Europe's self-sufficiency in critical raw materials and precious metals amid an increasingly tense geopolitical situation. The facility, located near the port and railway line, has grown since 2016 into one of the largest recycling facilities in Northern Europe. The facility covers an area equivalent to more than 80 football fields. Stena has developed processes and expanded the range of materials it can handle one by one. For example, the area has a unit called the “toy slaughterhouse”, which specializes in removing batteries and accumulators from technical toys such as walking soft toys and...