The project will drive sustainability and resilience by turning e-waste into a secure, circular source of critical raw materials
A new European consortium has launched Return, a research and innovation project co-funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe programme and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)
The project will develop a sustainable, digitally enabled system to recover valuable materials from complex electronic waste (e-waste, also known as WEEE), significantly reducing Europe's reliance on traditional, energy-intensive extraction methods.
The project will address the challenge of e-waste, one of the world's fastest-growing waste streams. Traditional recycling often fails to recover its full value, leaving critical raw materials untapped and perpetuating Europe's dependence on carbon-intensive imports. Return plans to overcome these barriers by developing an integrated process that is scalable, environmentally sound, and economically feasible.
Return aims to create a selective, high-yield recovery of critical metals from e-waste by integrating a low-impact chemical process with advanced digital technologies.
Key innovations include:
- An eco-friendly chemical recovery process to replace traditional, energy-intensive smelting
- Automated sorting systems to enhance efficiency and material purity
- Digital Product Passports (DPPs) to track materials throughout their lifecycle
- A Dynamic Digital Marketplace (DDM) to facilitate trade of recovered materials and components
The CEO of the project coordinator, DEScycle, said, "The Return project represents a significant step towards reshoring Europe’s critical raw material supply chains and transition to a circular economy. By transforming e-waste from an environmental liability into a valuable circular resource, we’re creating a secure, sustainable supply of critical materials, supporting Europe’s green and digital transitions and creating green jobs within the EU. Our collaborative approach brings together leaders in chemical engineering, digital technology, industrial automation and sustainability to build a model that can be scaled across the industry, directly supporting the goals of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act.”
The project will span 36 months, during which it will progress from laboratory validation to a pre-commercial demonstration of the Return model's effectiveness and scalability. The consortium will engage industry stakeholders, policymakers, and the public through workshops and publications to boost the project's impact.
