Short Take: Italy's Iren opens low-carbon critical material recycling plant

Iren S.p.A.

20/12/2024 12:12

AREZZO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Italy's Iren  IREE.MI  said
on Friday it inaugurated a plant to recover critical raw
materials from electronic waste with a new technology that
produces three time less carbon dioxide emissions than
traditional processes.
    
    WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
    The Italian utility said the plant will use a mechanical
disassembly process and specially designed hydrometallurgical
treatment, capable of extracting non-noble metals to isolate and
thus recover precious metals and critical raw materials.
    This is one of the first low-impact plants in Europe to
recover critical raw materials, Iren said in a statement.
    
    BY THE NUMBERS
    The new plant is able to process more than 300 tonnes of
circuit boards a year. It can recover some 200 kg of valuable
metals annually, including gold, palladium and silver, as well
as 57 metric tons of copper a year, Iren said at an event near
the Italian city of Arezzo, where the factory is located.
    
    CONTEXT
    Earlier this year, the European Union launched a strategy to
make sure the bloc can access raw materials it needs for the
green transition, partly by raising its recycling capacity.
    Under its Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) the EU targets
that by 2030 the bloc will mine 10% of its requirements for
strategic minerals, process 40%, and meet 25% of demand from
recycling.
    EU efforts to avoid foreign dependency have intensified
since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which highlighted the
risks of being reliant on a single country for essential
supplies.
    
    KEY QUOTES
    "Italy is a country with low raw materials... our greatest
mine is waste," Italy's Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin
said at the event to inaugurate the plant.  
    "We will recover from computers, cellular phones and other
waste precious and rare raw materials that are critical for our
industry," Chairman Luca Dal Fabbro said.  

 (Reporting by Silvia Ognibene; writing by Elvira Pollina and
Francesca Landini
Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
 ((francesca.landini@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 66129437;
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