The Netherlands is emerging as a strategic centre for Europe’s secondary raw materials industry, with four recycling projects covering batteries, copper, aluminium and electronic waste receiving Strategic Project status from the European Commission under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA).
All four Dutch projects selected in the October 2026 round focus on recycling rather than primary mineral extraction. The portfolio includes Back to Battery in Delft, Mitsubishi Materials Europe’s 3ECYCLE project in Amsterdam, Myne Circular Metals in Harderwijk, and CRITICAL.’s planned Urban Mining Factory for printed circuit boards.
Together, the projects illustrate how specialised recycling facilities can recover valuable metals from different waste streams and support Europe’s efforts to strengthen domestic raw-material supply chains.
Battery Recycling and Copper Recovery Drive Investment
Back to Battery is developing a scalable refining process for battery black mass, targeting lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite. These materials are important to battery manufacturing and other industrial applications.
Mitsubishi Materials plans to use its proposed 3ECYCLE facility to process electronic scrap and recover copper and other valuable metals. Myne Circular Metals is targeting aluminium and copper, while CRITICAL.’s Urban Mining Factory is designed to recover industrial metals from discarded printed circuit boards.
The projects address different stages of the recycling industry, from processing complex electronic waste to recovering metals that can return to manufacturing.
Logistics Give the Netherlands a Strategic Advantage
The concentration of recycling projects is significant because the Netherlands is not a major European mining jurisdiction. Its competitive advantages instead include ports, logistics networks, trading infrastructure and access to large volumes of goods moving through an interconnected regional economy.
These capabilities are equally relevant to secondary raw materials. Electronic waste, used batteries and metal scrap must be collected, transported, sorted and processed before their embedded metals can re-enter industrial supply chains.
The Dutch model demonstrates how countries with limited mineral extraction can still capture value from Europe’s critical raw materials industry by developing the infrastructure needed to recover and process existing resources.
Mitsubishi Materials and CRITICAL. Develop Specialised Facilities
Mitsubishi Materials brings established non-ferrous smelting and recycling expertise to its proposed 3ECYCLE project. The Japanese group has said the facility forms part of a broader strategy to expand the circular use of secondary resources.
CRITICAL. is pursuing a specialised urban-mining model focused on complex waste streams. Its planned printed-circuit-board facility is designed to process approximately 15,000 tonnes annually.
The company is also developing a separate solar-panel recycling project in Germany with a targeted capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to as many as one million end-of-life panels.
These developments illustrate how urban mining can evolve towards the specialisation found in conventional mining. Individual facilities can focus on batteries, circuit boards, magnets, electric motors, photovoltaic panels or industrial residues, with recovered materials subsequently transferred to specialised refining plants.
Recycling Infrastructure Creates New Investment Opportunities
For investors, the Dutch cluster highlights the importance of location, feedstock availability and transport infrastructure in determining the economics of recycling projects. Unlike conventional mines, which must be developed around specific geological deposits, recycling facilities can be located closer to waste collection networks, ports, industrial customers and suitable energy supplies. Permitting conditions and access to skilled workers also influence site selection.
The Netherlands could therefore build on its established role as a European logistics gateway to become an important centre for secondary raw-material processing.
As Europe expands its copper, aluminium, lithium and other critical-mineral recycling capacity, its future supply network may increasingly depend on industrial and logistics hubs rather than mining regions alone. The broader opportunity lies in repeatedly recovering value from materials already circulating through the economy, reducing waste and strengthening Europe’s access to strategically important metals.
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