- This step draws no data on the map.
Where recycling could change the map
How much of EU demand recycling meets today, what EU law asks for, and how concentrated refining is. The data covers the EU only, and the story says what it cannot show.
Scroll, or use the step links. The map follows the step in the middle of the screen. Nothing plays by itself.
Step 1 of 6
How much of EU demand recycling meets
Eurostat publishes, for the European Union only, the share of demand that is met by recycling old scrap. For 2022: copper 55.0 % , cobalt 22.0 % , nickel 16.0 % , lithium 0.0 % .
End-of-life recycling input rate: the share of EU demand met by recycling old scrap. EU only. Values differ between assessment years partly because the method changed.
No such figure exists in the atlas for the world or for another country, so the globe has no shading here.
Step 2 of 6
Rare earths, gallium and germanium
For rare earths Eurostat reports single elements (2022, EU only): neodymium 1.0 % , praseodymium 10.0 % , dysprosium 0.0 % .
Gallium: 0.0 % . Germanium: 2.0 % .
↑ Back: How much of EU demand recycling meets↓ Next: No published rate
Step 3 of 6where the data ends
No published rate
Eurostat publishes no end-of-life recycling input rate for graphite.
Eurostat publishes no end-of-life recycling input rate for tungsten.
Eurostat publishes no end-of-life recycling input rate for antimony.
The atlas shows no rate for these materials and does not estimate one.
↑ Back: Rare earths, gallium and germanium↓ Next: What EU law asks for
Step 4 of 6
What EU law asks for
The Batteries Regulation sets a minimum recycled share in the active materials of new batteries. From 18 August 2031: 16 % Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (Batteries Regulation), Article 8(2)(a) ↗ for cobalt, 6 % Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (Batteries Regulation), Article 8(2)(c) ↗ for lithium and 6 % Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (Batteries Regulation), Article 8(2)(d) ↗ for nickel. The text for cobalt reads “(a) 16 % cobalt;”
The Critical Raw Materials Act sets a benchmark of 25 % Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 (Critical Raw Materials Act), Article 5(1)(a)(iii) ↗ for EU recycling capacity, to be met by 31 December 2030: “at least 25 % of the Union’s annual consumption of strategic raw materials”
These are targets written into law and quoted from the Official Journal. They are not forecasts.
↑ Back: No published rate↓ Next: The refining shares these targets sit against
Step 5 of 6
The refining shares these targets sit against
In the IEA tables for 2025, China refines 75.6 % of the world's cobalt and 73.7 % of its lithium. The map is shaded with the cobalt table.
The Act also sets a limit on dependence, by 2030 Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 (Critical Raw Materials Act), Article 5(1)(b) ↗: “no third country accounts for more than 65 % of the Union’s annual consumption of such a strategic raw material”
That limit is about what the EU consumes. The shares on the map are of world refining. They are different measures, and the atlas does not convert one into the other.
↑ Back: What EU law asks for↓ Next: What the data cannot show
Step 6 of 6where the data ends
What the data cannot show
The atlas has no record of recycling plants by country and no recycling rate outside the EU.
It can state the published rates and the legal targets. It cannot say how much recycling will change where materials come from, and this story does not.