The Netherlands’ untapped mine is above ground
Not down in the soil, but above the ground, the Netherlands has a valuable source of materials present in waste streams.
Published on March 3, 2026
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Mauro swapped Sardinia for Eindhoven and has been an IO+ editor for 3 years. As a GREEN+ expert, he covers the energy transition with data-driven stories.
The Netherlands may not be known for mining, but one of our richest material reserves lies hidden in plain sight — inside homes, offices, and forgotten electronics. A new analysis finds that discarded appliances across the country contain billions of kilograms of valuable raw materials crucial for the green and digital transition.
According to the Dutch Urban Mine analysis, electrical appliances in Dutch households and companies contain over 7 billion kilograms of valuable raw materials. Roughly 10% of them (764 million tons) are critical raw materials (CRMs), essential for the green and digital transition.
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The Dutch above-ground mine
Copper, for instance, is needed for wires and motors; silicon for solar panels and chips; and neodymium for wind turbine magnets. Retrieving them at the end of appliances' lifecycles is key to improving circularity—and to lessening dependence on external supply chains.
The report, written by the electrical waste collection and recycling organization Stichting OPEN, is the first overview of the country’s urban mining potential—recovering valuable materials from discarded waste.
In 2025, more than 400 million kilograms of electric appliances were disposed of as waste in the Netherlands. Thousands of new laptops, solar panels, or electric vehicles could be made by reusing them.
“An average Dutch household contains 688 kilos of raw materials. So the potential is enormous. The challenge is that many of these substances are still difficult to recover. That is why this is the time to invest in new, high-quality recycling technologies,” stated Jan Vlak, director of Stichting OPEN.
Missed opportunities
The Dutch analysis draws on the figures from the European report, "2050 Critical Raw Materials Outlook for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment," by the EU-supported FutuRaM consortium.
Their analysis confirms the great potential in European waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). They estimate that, combining the discarded products in the EU plus those in the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland, there are 1 million tonnes of CRMs. Enough to form a line of containers from Zurich to Paris.
However, only 40% of this amount is currently being recovered. FutuRaM underlines how only half of the total WEEE was properly managed, recovering only 40% of that potential million of CRMs. A marginal part was lost in recycling procedures, while half wasn’t recovered due to improper waste management.
Learning to maximize this potential is key. FutuRaM forecasts a rise in WEEE in the years leading up to 2050. Accordingly, tons and tons of CRMs will also end up in this waste pile.
Europe has work to do on CRM sourcing
As both Stichting OPEN and FutuRaM stress, recovering as many of these materials as possible is strategically important.
Europe lags behind on both CRM extraction and production. A 2023 European Commission paper examined CRM mining and processing in Europe. In nearly all of the materials analyzed, European countries have a marginal share of the global supply chain.
China dominates the global supply of these materials. The same Commission’s paper clearly showed it. Beijing held a firm grip on most of the materials analyzed. In the table below, you can have an overview of the list.
Recovering more is the key
The EU Critical Raw Materials Act, approved in 2024, mandates, among other things, that recycled CRMs account for 25% of the bloc's total raw materials consumption by 2030.
A recent report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) sounded the alarm over the European supply of CRMs. According to the analysts, efforts to diversify supply are yielding few results, obstacles between member states are slowing the ramp-up of production, and recycling is in its infancy.
As for recycling, the ECA underscores that seven of the 26 materials flagged as CRMs have recycling rates of 1-5%. Ten are not recovered at all. Moreover, recycling companies are coping with high costs, low volumes, and regulatory obstacles impacting their competitiveness.
With electronic waste volumes expected to grow sharply by 2050, the question is no longer whether valuable materials exist within Europe’s urban mines, but whether policymakers and industry can recover them fast enough. Without major investment in recycling capacity, much of this strategic resource risks remaining lost in the waste stream.