Brussels, 18/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament industry committee commissioned report notes that coordination between member states for ensuring that “rare earths” are recycled from electronic waste is too limited. The study says that irrespective of the economic and environmental advantages of recycling, there is an urgent need to recycle electronic waste in order to break Europe's dependency on rare earths, which mainly come from China.
The document from the European Parliament's policy department was published at the beginning of February and highlights the fact that the EU is a significant net importer of rare metals used in hi-tech products, such as mobile phones, for example. The demand for “rare earths” is rising incessantly, as is their price. This situation is mainly due to the fact that China is the biggest exporter of these elements (95% in 2001). Many of these elements enter Europe in the form of manufactured products. The study also emphasises that only 1 billion of the 12 billion tons of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is recycled, and this is far from being performed on an industrial scale, due to the lack of an effective distribution chain. The study (“EIP on Raw Material, Raw Materials Initiative”) explains that there are many promising opportunities in this area and the European initiatives taken have proved productive when supporting research and working out what policy direction should be taken in the future.
The report does note, however, the lack, indeed, the absence of coordination between member states when managing demand for “rare earths”. The report submitted to the MEPs recommends that member states increase financial support for technological development, gathering more data (particularly within the framework of the Ecodesign directive) and establishing standards that help collect and recycle materials. Industry should also increase interaction between the different cogs in the distribution chain. (Marie-Pauline Desset)