On 9 October 2026 the European Commission selected 46 new Strategic Projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act. The legal act is Commission Decision C(2026) 8051. Press release IP/26/2113 and a questions-and-answers note were issued the same day. The Dutch government confirmed that four of the recycling projects are in the Netherlands.
The second call closed on 15 January 2026. The Commission received 102 applications located in the EU across 18 Member States. It and external experts assessed 92 of those files against security of supply, technical feasibility, environmental, social and governance standards, and cross-border benefits. The 46 selected projects sit in Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.
The new list has eight extraction projects, 11 processing projects and 19 recycling projects, plus eight integrated projects: three that combine extraction and processing, and five that combine processing and recycling. The projects cover 15 of the 17 strategic raw materials. Combined with the 47 EU projects named in March 2025 and 13 projects in third countries named in June 2025, the Commission says the set could fully meet the recycling benchmarks for lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements. The Critical Raw Materials Act, in force since 23 May 2024, sets 2030 capacity targets of at least 10 percent of annual EU consumption for extraction, 40 percent for processing and 25 percent for recycling.
The 46 projects are expected to need about €21.1 billion of capital. Strategic-project status does not automatically award EU money. The Commission says it helps promoters reach the relevant instruments, and that more than €2 billion has already been mobilised for the 2025 group through the Innovation Fund, State aid and the European Investment Bank. Recycling and other non-extraction projects have a 15-month permit-granting target under the Act. Being named does not mean a plant is financed or already running.
The four Dutch recycling projects
The Dutch government named Myne Circular Metals, Back to Battery, CRITICAL. and Mitsubishi Materials. The annex to the Commission decision lists them as ongoing recycling projects.
Myne Circular Metals Harderwijk, promoted by Myne Circular Metals B.V., is recorded as contributing to the supply of bauxite, alumina, aluminium and copper. The Dutch government says the company recycles low-grade metal scrap into high-grade secondary aluminium and copper for industrial use, and that it aims to scale to several EU plants of 50,000 tonnes a year each.
3ECYCLE, promoted by Mitsubishi Materials Europe B.V., is recorded as contributing to copper supply. The Dutch government describes secondary smelting and refining of copper and tungsten, recovering high-purity copper from electronic-waste streams through a closed metallurgical process already used at other European plants, with planned production of 60 kilotonnes of copper cathodes.
Back to Battery B.V. converts lithium-ion battery material by hydrometallurgy into lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite. The Dutch note puts the start at 2,000 tonnes a year in the Netherlands, with a stated aim of 26,000 tonnes, about 10 percent of the European market in 2030.
CRITICAL., owner of Circular Industries, is listed as Urban Mining Factory - Printed Circuit Boards. The Dutch government says the plant will start on nine elements recovered from discarded circuit boards, with an ambition to recover and refine 24.
Those figures are promoter and government descriptions attached to the designation. They are not a published purchase programme for this month.
Who it affects among yards, traders, mills and processors
Dutch, Belgian and German yards that already sell mixed aluminium, copper-bearing electronic waste, battery scrap or circuit boards into the Netherlands now have four named intra-EU offtakers moving through a faster permit and finance window. Delivery is a plant ticket, not a deep-sea stem.
A yard that prepares mixed old aluminium or fragmentiser aluminium for alloy sort should treat Myne as a processor that upgrades a low-grade stream. The Speira can-sheet furnace opened at Neuss last week wants baled used beverage cans. The TRIMET line opened at Hamm is a mill sorter for mixed aluminium. Keep those three books apart. See aluminium scrap and ISRI scrap codes for Taldon, Tata, Tense and Twitch. Do not invent an ISRI name for a sensor-sorted alloy fraction.
Copper yards that sell clean wire should not assume 3ECYCLE will treat a mixed electronic lot as Berry or Birch. The annex is a copper-supply project that takes electronic waste into secondary smelting. Keep copper scrap solids and wire on one ticket and e-waste or circuit boards on another.
Battery and printed-circuit-board lots are specialist streams. Name them as lithium-ion battery scrap or printed circuit boards. Do not call them Zorba.
The CRMA list is a capacity and permitting decision. The 18 September draft waste-import list is a separate legal book: it would restrict EU metal-waste exports to some non-OECD countries from 21 May 2027. See the EU draft waste-import list and why the EU wants to limit scrap metal exports. A yard that has been booking mixed aluminium to India still needs a 2027 plan even if Harderwijk is designated. The public consultation on that draft remains open until 16 October.
CBAM still prices imported steel and aluminium products, not scrap under the usual waste codes. A recycled-content claim on the parcel does not change that. End-of-waste status is a separate legal test.
The Commission says it will open another call for Strategic Project applications towards the end of 2026. Processors with a recycling project that meets the CRMA tests can apply then. Yards do not need a designation to sell a named lot.
How to name the lot
Name the grade the plant can charge. For aluminium use Taldon, Tata, Tense or Twitch as the lot actually is. For copper use Berry, Birch, Cliff or Clove when the metal matches those grades. For lithium-ion batteries or printed circuit boards, write the stream in plain words and do not attach an ISRI code. State tonnes, the city or works, and whether the sale is ex-works or delivered. Keep e-waste, batteries and clean mill scrap on separate tickets. Do not write CRMA, 50,000 tonnes or 60 kilotonnes on the offer.
Verified companies can list on live lots or post a wanted enquiry. Request access if you have aluminium, copper, battery or circuit-board scrap, or a processing programme to cover.