Securing Critical Raw Materials Through Circular Economy Policy: An Analysis of R-strategies for E-waste in Europe

Tom Hunger; Marlen Gabriele  Arnold

doi:10.55845/joce-2026-41317

Authors

Tom Hunger University of Technology Chemnitz Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7894-4739
Marlen Gabriele Arnold University of Technology Chemnitz Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6536-0301

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55845/joce-2026-41317

Keywords:

9R-framework, Circular Economy, E-waste, Resource Security, Strategic Autonomy

Abstract

Secure access to critical raw materials (CRMs) has become a strategic concern for Europe amid geopolitical tensions, increasing export restrictions, and growing material demand from the green and digital transition. At the same time, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) represents both a rapidly growing waste stream and a potential secondary source of CRMs. This article examines how European Union (EU) and selected national circular economy policies integrate WEEE and electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) into CRM security strategies. Drawing on a framework-based policy analysis, the study applies the 9R framework to EU-level documents and national strategies from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. The findings reveal a structural end-of-life bias as recycling dominates policy discourse, while higher-order strategies such as refuse, rethink, reduce, repair, refurbish, and remanufacture remain weakly embedded. Although CRMs are increasingly addressed in policy documents, explicit links to WEEE and broader lifecycle-oriented circular strategies remain fragmented. This imbalance highlights a conceptual limitation in current policy approaches, which remain largely oriented toward end-of-life measures and overlook significant resource-saving potentials in earlier lifecycle phases. By organizing the challenges that underlie this imbalance into four interrelated types – system-based, concept-based, product-based, and transition-based – the article specifies why higher-order strategies remain marginalized and where future interventions could most effectively address the gap.

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