THE CHALLENGE

In its H2020 work program the European Union determined its goal to moving to a greener, more resource efficient and climate-resilient economy. As part of its strategy to reach these goals in 2010 and 2014 the Commission identified a list of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) that need special attention due to their economic importance and higher risk of supply interruption. CEWASTE was addressing these challenges by developing a standardization process in the value chain of secondary raw materials from wastes containing relevant amounts of valuable and critical raw materials.

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THE CEWASTE PROJECT

CEWASTE came to its end in April 2021. It was a 2.5 year project funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. It developed a voluntary certification scheme for waste treatment. Specifically, the project created, validated and launched the scheme for collection, transport and treatment facilities of key types of waste containing significant amounts of valuable and critical raw materials such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and batteries.

To learn more please consult CEWASTE Final Report available here. 

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THE PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND STAGES

The CEWASTE project was meant to contribute to an improved recovery of valuable and critical raw materials (CRMs) from key types of waste through traceable and sustainable treatment proces. To ensure a comprehensive approach and a robust result, the project was developed in four stages along the following six specific objectives:

  • Objective 1 - Understand existing recovery practice, standards and verification schemes;
  • Objective 2 - Develop sustainability and traceability requirements;
  • Objective 3 - Develop an assurance system and related verification procedures;
  • Objective 4 - Validate the new voluntary scheme;
  • Objective 5 - Ensure long term sustainability of the scheme;
  • Objective 6 - Ensure a transparent stakeholder process.
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THE IMPACT OF THE PROJECT

The results of this project will contribute in general to a better informed policy formulation, better stakeholder accountability, enhanced networking between key institutions in EU and worldwide and better recovery of raw materials.