MET Conference Agenda

In May 2026, Europe’s vast ‘urban mine’ is mapped – a world first - by the FutuRaM project debuted a comprehensive mapping of critical raw materials (CRMs) embedded in discarded products, industrial residues, and demolished infrastructure across the EU27+4 (EU, UK, Switzerland, Iceland, and Norway). The FutuRaM project, funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme and run by an international consortium of 29 partners, developed comprehensive insights on the amounts that are consumed, generated and recovered to secondary resources. The unprecedented analysis involved analysis of 42 critical elements contained in several waste streams, from electronic waste, vehicles and their batteries to wind turbines, slags and ashes and building construction and demolition debris.

It revealed that recovery systems could recover substantial of CRMs annually, with estimates of primary substitution potential depending on various scenarios. At the same time, it improves transparency and confidence in Europe’s ‘urban mine’ potential and shows the environmental and resource benefits of recycling.

All the project data are now available through the Urban Mine Platform (urbanmineplatform.eu), a digital tool that helps visualize the availability of CRMs across Europe’s waste streams, analyzed using a common framework that tracks flows from products and components down to individual materials and chemical elements.

Stay tuned for learning about the exact findings in which waste stream, you can find which critical raw material.