00:00Europe is poor in raw materials. It imports 90% of the most critical ones.
00:11The European Union is looking to reduce its dependence thanks to the circular economy.
00:16This geopolitical situation has to be the time where we actually go circular.
00:22But is this rush into secondary resources profitable? Let's find out.
00:30Here we are in the suburbs of Brussels.
00:37On average, a Belgian family has 74 electronic devices at home, 13 of which are unused.
00:43Do you know what the urban mine is happening under this chapter?
00:49The RecuPel Association is on a collection tour.
00:53The devices in good condition will be reconditioned or resold.
00:56It's the other part that interests us today. They're going for recycling.
01:00The first step is to remove all of the personnel.
01:07It was in my house for several years and they will use it well.
01:11The cables will go to the right, the fer will go to the left. If everyone would do it, the earth would be less sick.
01:18When we see the inside of these devices, we can see that there is a lot of first material.
01:24Everything is aluminum, lithium or nickel.
01:28The European directive setting the requirements for collecting e-waste is going to be updated to make the most out of some increasingly precious materials.
01:39To help you understand, here's Komet Somme.
01:42This European leader in metal recycling is responding to the growing demand for resources that are essential to the green and digital transitions, the famous rare earths.
01:52It's typically this electric engine that we will dismantle to extract, and you can see it here.
01:59To extract the rare earth value produced in China, contained in the elements that you can see here.
02:04This is the reason why we try to reduce our dependence by recycling more, here in Europe.
02:15Artificial intelligence enables this robot to sort other metals such as aluminum and copper,
02:21which are among the European Union's list of 34 critical raw materials.
02:25Artificial intelligence is our R&D strategy to go further and further into the purification of these metals,
02:35and so into the price.
02:36So we are going to equip these new carriers to allow us to go further and further,
02:41including in the separation of aluminum by aluminum family.
02:45It is especially applied innovation to answer the needs of the sector.
02:49The EU's objective is for a quarter of the critical materials consumed to come from recycling by 2030.
03:00The European Commission is to present a Circular Economy Act by the end of next year.
03:06Altogether, around 12% of the products used in the EU today come from recycling.
03:12Commissioner Roswaal wants to promote circular competitiveness to increase this share.
03:16We have a lot of policy already, but we need to get the economics right.
03:21One thing that we have struggled with is that virgin materials is cheaper than recycled,
03:27and also we sometimes don't have the techniques, but of course there is policy.
03:32There is policy when it comes to making, for example, targets in different materials.
03:37We need to make a single market for waste.
03:40We need to see as an asset that we also need to use more sustainable, more economical,
03:45and also for our own security.
03:51But it's not all about electronics.
03:53We're off to Denmark to talk about another strategic sector.
03:57The building industry accounts for 40% of total waste.
04:04This site is a pilot project.
04:06Certain materials are gently dismantled for reuse.
04:09These bricks will be clean, so you can actually make new walls.
04:18Concrete is one of the most CO2-intensive materials.
04:22So if you can do some kind of solution where you can reuse them directly,
04:25you don't need to recast them or anything.
04:27This is the best for environment and also in terms of saving new resources.
04:32But this is still a minority practice.
04:37A lot of concrete is still down-cycled.
04:39It's a quite low-value recycling process.
04:42You can crush it down and then, for example, use it as a base layer when you do road construction.
04:48The Circular Economy Act should also include a review of the main waste legislation to minimize the proportion that is still not recycled.
05:00All this would normally just be incinerated.
05:02This is almost impossible to recycle because there are so many different kinds of waste fragments.
05:07The Solum Company has invested in this robot, which is capable of preventing this so-called mixed waste from vanishing.
05:14Wood, concrete, metal and plastic.
05:16If this had to be done by hand, it would take ages.
05:19You can actually increase the recycling waste very, very much.
05:23The problem is about this.
05:24It's also economically feasible and it's also very, very good for the environment because there is quite big CO2 savings.
05:31These materials can be sold to companies that manufacture circular products.
05:40Again, is a Danish scale-up that designs and builds innovative construction products from waste.
05:46This is about to be incinerated.
05:49These are plastic boards made out of 100% consumer waste or medical plastic waste.
05:56These interior glass partitions are modulated from form exterior windows from demolition sites.
06:05The clarity in Denmark is only around 4% in the build environment and that obviously has to go up.
06:11We are predicting that towards 2060 we are to double the amount of square meters globally.
06:18That's just not possible if we don't look at resources as something that is a scarce thing that we need to take care of.
06:25It's a conservative industry. Things are moving slowly, but they are moving in the right direction.
06:31And you are making it move. We are making it move. We are making it be possible.
06:37For this to be possible, material inventories must be carried out before each demolition.
06:42Nice to see you.
06:44Nice to meet you.
06:45Hello.
06:46Lendaga architects are experts in this field.
06:49Here is a community house they've built from a former wholesale market.
06:53What I'm mostly excited about is actually the reuse of concrete.
06:58These elements kept some of the small scratches, traces of the past.
07:06What you see is actually similar.
07:09We tried to utilize what was given to us.
07:12A really extensive part of the embodied cavern that we have in our buildings is in the structure as the old marketplace.
07:21Steel beams were taken down, kept so they could be re-erected here again.
07:27But the priority for these architects is still to avoid demolition through minimum waste.
07:34If we have existing buildings on site, we would always try and assess the opportunity for transformation or renovation of the building.
07:42Our mantra is form follows availability.
07:45Taking that responsibility seriously is really important.
07:51That's all for this trip.
07:52See you soon on the road to a more secular world.
07:55Zukunft Tusk
07:59Sh,…
08:03T
08:03T
08:06E
08:08T
08:20T
Comments