Dutch households and businesses hold an urban mine of more than 7 billion kilograms of raw materials

Electrical appliances in Dutch households and businesses contain more than 7 billion kilograms of valuable raw materials, including 764 million kilograms of strategic and critical raw materials (Critical Raw Materials). This is shown by the Dutch Urban Mine Analysis conducted by Stichting OPEN, in which European research data have for the first time been translated into the Dutch context. The potential of urban mining as a means to reduce dependency on foreign suppliers of critical raw materials is therefore enormous. However, significant investment in the development of new recycling technologies is needed to unlock this potential..

Stichting OPEN—the organisation responsible in the Netherlands for the collection and recycling of electrical waste—combined its own detailed Dutch market and waste data with insights from the European FutuRaM consortium Urban Mining study published in 2025. This has resulted in a reliable, nationwide picture of the Dutch urban mine. Critical raw materials such as copper, aluminium, neodymium and cobalt are essential for green technologies, digital infrastructure and modern defence systems—and they are present in large quantities in the millions of appliances currently in use in Dutch households and businesses.

Examples of volumes of critical raw materials in Dutch appliances:
Copper: 240,841,000 kg
Aluminium: 341,026,000 kg
Neodymium: 1,106,000 kg
Cobalt: 2,148,000 kg
For a complete overview of raw materials, see the Dutch Urban Mine Analysis (download currently only available in Dutch at the bottom of the Dutch version of this article).

Stichting OPEN: “Now is the moment to invest in recycling technology”
According to Jan Vlak, Director of Stichting OPEN: “An average Dutch household contains 688 kilograms of raw materials. In effect, we already have an above-ground mine, covering virtually all the critical raw materials Europe will urgently need in the coming decades. The potential is therefore huge. The challenge is that many of these substances are still difficult to recover. That is why now is the moment to invest in new, high-quality recycling technologies. Ultimately, this is the only way to reduce our dependence on foreign raw materials in the future. Moreover, possessing such technologies creates a strategic and economic advantage. In the long term, the investment more than pays for itself.”

European perspective: much ground still to be gained
The calculations by Stichting OPEN are based on the European report The 2050 Critical Raw Materials Outlook for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (2025), produced by the EU-funded FutuRaM consortium. This study maps the average amount of critical raw materials contained in electrical appliances. The volume of electrical waste in Europe is expected to grow from 10.7 million tonnes in 2022 to up to 19 million tonnes by 2050—almost a doubling. Even if volumes were to stabilise, the concentration of critical raw materials will continue to increase, for example due to the rapid expansion of solar panels, EV chargers and data centre servers. A circular approach—focused on increased repair, reuse and design for disassembly—leads to greater retention of raw materials and less waste. This results in a double benefit: reduced environmental pressure and greater strategic security of supply for raw materials. The latter has become more relevant than ever in light of the new geopolitical realities. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act therefore stipulates that at least 25% of the EU’s strategic raw materials must come from recycling by 2030. At present, this target remains far out of reach, as highlighted in a report by the European Court of Auditors in early February 2026. Currently, seven of the 26 materials required for the energy transition have recycling rates of only 1% to 5%, while ten materials are not recycled at all. There is still a world to be gained.