Report title: Rewiring Consumer Electronics – Reducing Demand for Critical Raw Materials by Design
Authors: Dr. Benjamin Sprecher, Anne Roorda, Raphael Jung, Prof. Dr. Ruud Balkenende.
Delft, March 5, 2026
The Centre for Materials & Resilience (CMR) today released its first report, Rewiring Consumer Electronics – Reducing Demand for Critical Raw Materials by Design. Produced in collaboration with TU Delft and commissioned by Invest-NL, the report sets out how and to what extent circular design can extend product lifetimes, improve recovery of critical raw materials (CRMs), and strengthen European supply chain security.
Why this report, and what it covers
Consumer electronics are major drivers of global material consumption. Short product lifetimes, limited repairability, and linear value chains mean many devices are replaced long before their technical potential is exhausted. In the Netherlands, electronics consumption requires approximately 19,000 tons of critical raw materials per year, most of which are lost at end of life.
The report examines how circular design principles can reduce CRM demand at scale through four strategies:
- Durability and reuse
- Repairability
- Refurbishment
- Remanufacturing and recyclability
For each strategy, the report identifies concrete design interventions, assesses relevant business models, and analyses barriers to implementation. A quantitative analysis illustrates that reduction in CRM demand can be significant (up to almost 80%) when these strategies are applied at market scale.
The report also makes numerous recommendations for policy makers, such as introducing mandatory warranty and software update periods that cover the lifetime that a consumer should expect a product to keep working, for example at minimum 12 years in the case of washing machines.
More information
CMR website: www.c4mr.org
CMR LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/centre-for-materials-and-resilience/
Media contact:
Benjamin Sprecher
Director CMR
b.sprecher@tudelft.nl
