Article / Report

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Producing electric cables and wires, power-generating equipment, including solar modules, motors, power turbines, as well as electronic equipment and instruments, including computer chips, communication equipment, analytical instruments, lasers, display screens, point-of-sales machines, security system equipment, and healthcare equipment

Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Refining and processing ores and producing ferrous and non-ferrous metal and glass products, including packaging

Metal and Glass

Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities

Professional, scientific and technical activities

Utilising data and models to to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Data analytics, modelling

Installing sensors to gather data from products and services to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Sensors, monitoring systems

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

Solutions at all stages of the Electronics Value Chain

Zero Waste Electronics

Other

Impacts

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Industries

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Nace Sectors

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

Urban Opportunities

ProSUM – Prospecting Secondary raw materials from the Urban Mine and Mining waste

The ProSUM project will deliver the First Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform, a centralised database of all available data and information on arisings, stocks, flows and treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), batteries and mining wastes. The availability of primary and secondary raw materials data, easily accessible in one platform, will provide the foundation for improving Europe’s position on raw material supply, with the ability to accommodate more wastes and resources in future. ProSUM will provide data for improving the management of these wastes and enhancing the resource efficiency of collection, treatment and recycling.
Every year in Europe, around 9 million tonnes of WEEE and 7-8M tonnes and ELVs are generated, and over 1 million tonnes batteries are sold. These products are a rich source of secondary critical raw materials (CRMs) in the urban mine. For example, 99% of world Gallium consumption is in integrated circuits and optoelctronic devices, 74% of Indium in flat panel displays and 27% of cobalt in rechargeable batteries. Previous and active mining deposits also contain untapped reserves of CRMs.
Until now, the data on CRMs has been produced by a variety of institutions including government agencies, universities, NGOs and industry and lies scattered in different databases, formats and reports which is difficult to compare or aggregate.
ProSUM, Latin for ‘I am useful’, will create an Information Network that allows partners in the network to provide and use data by the creation of an inventory of waste streams with a high potential to serve as a source of CRMs. This ground breaking project will produce the EU Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform (EU-UMKDP) providing user friendly, seamless access to data and intelligence on mineral resources from extraction to end of life products with the ability to reference all spatial and non-spatial data. The link to primary mineral resources is provided through the existing EU Minerals Knowledge Data Platform. The project will be addressed to a wide range of end-users, including the recycling industry, producers and producer compliance schemes, and policy makers.
All available data will be collated and screened to see if it allows for better characterisation of the material content of these waste and whether better data is required. This will lead to the identification of the need for additional standards and datasets and harmonised methodologies for characterising the CRM content of these waste streams.
The first activity of the Network will be to identify how data should be presented and organised for this wide range of stakeholders to ensure it meets their needs. Within the Information Network, Special Interest Groups are also being set up to support the particular data needs of different groups of stakeholders. Register your interest in joining the ProSUM Information Network by e-mailing james.horne@weee-forum.org
The project started in January 2015 and lasts for three years until December 2017.  The project is funded by the European Union (€3.051m) and the Swiss Government (€0.63m).  DISCLAIMER
The information and content of this website is the sole responsibility of the ProSUM Consortium members and does not necessarily represent the views expressed by the European Commission or its services. While the information contained in the documents and webpages is believed to be accurate, the authors or members of the ProSUM consortium make no warranty of any kind with regard to this material.
Neither the ProSUM Consortium nor any of its members, their officers, employees or agents shall be responsible or liable for negligence or in respect of any inaccuracy or omission, or for any direct or indirect or consequential loss or damage caused by or arising from any information herein. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this website do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the ProSUM Consortium concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Neither does the citing of trade names, companies, schemes or commercial processes constitute endorsement by any member of the ProSUM Consortium.


The ProSUM project will deliver the First Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform, a centralised database of all available data and information on arisings, stocks, flows and treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), batteries and mining wastes. The availability of primary and secondary raw materials data, easily accessible in one platform, will provide the foundation for improving Europe’s position on raw material supply, with the ability to accommodate more wastes and resources in future. ProSUM will provide data for improving the management of these wastes and enhancing the resource efficiency of collection, treatment and recycling.

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ProSUM consortium

<p>Although the potential for urban mining and the use of various metal-heavy waste streams to retrieve raw materials is high, it is underused. One of the main reasons for that is the availability of data, which is often scattered across multiple databases and stored in various formats which may not always be compatible. The EU-led ProSUM project brought together researchers and stakeholders across the EU, Norway, and Switzerland in an information network to exchange knowledge. Its main product is a platform launched in January 2018, which collects and displays available data on three waste streams.</p>