New project offers a look at the future of urban mining in Europe

For four years, the ADIR project (“Next generation urban mining - Automated disassembly, separation and recovery of valuable materials from electronic equipment”), which is funded by the European Union and supervised by Fraunhofer ITL, has been investigating the feasibility of urban mining in the European Union.

The study focuses in particular on the viability of automated disassembly, separation, and recovery of valuable materials in electronic equipment.

The project was launched with the strategic goal of reducing the European Union’s use of natural resources and reducing its reliance on costly and environmentally harmful imports.

The project consortium demonstrated the efficiency and commercial readiness of its recycling concept by disassembling more than 1,000 mobile phones and 800 printed circuit boards, before presenting their results at the Berlin Recycling and Raw Materials Conference in March.

Visit the project’s website to learn more.