17 March 2023 – The European Commission has released the Critical Raw Materials Act, that aims to increase and diversify the EU’s critical raw materials supply, strengthen circularity and support research and innovation.
Tahmid Chowdhury, Industry Programme Manager, CLG Europe's Materials & Products Taskforce said: “This new act goes some way towards addressing the limited supply of raw materials around the world, such as lithium – a key material used in electric vehicles. We welcome the suggestion that the EU should be more self-sufficient along the entire value chain.
But while this is a step forward, the act specifies that 15% of the EU’s annual consumption of critical raw material should come from recycling. It focuses solely on recycling and fails to take a more systemic approach to circularity. In other words, how we can better use, reuse and repurpose materials to reduce the demand for new materials in the first place. This is a missed opportunity to address a wider issue of tackling ever-growing consumption and increasing waste.”
First published in The Brussels Times on 17 March 2023. Read the full article here.