Research

Context

The uses of mineral and fossil natural resources has become a critical issue of sustainable development, affecting both developed and emerging countries. The depletion of these resources, correlated with an increase in their global use, leads to the exploration of new deposits, which are more expensive to exploit and have greater environmental and social impact. From an economical point of view, one of the main issues is the availability of these resources, as price volatility and the risk of supply disruption [1] make companies consuming raw materials more vulnerable.

Objectives

The research of the Chair Urban Mines, aim at developing new channels to produce secondary materials from the recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic (WEEE), for purposes of substitution of the virgin material. The targeted materials are polymers and strategic metals contained in WEEE.

The two main issues of this work are :

1. Develop raw materials that meet the expectations of manufacturers, especially in terms of price, quality and environment;
2. Define economic criteria and financial invitations to be implemented to promote the emergence and maintenance of these sectors.

Research topics

Depending on the subject, the research carried out by the Chair in Urban Mines focuses on the development of disruptive processes, the optimization of existing technologies or the development of new models. The research themes of the Chair are:

• Strategic metals
• Polymers
• Circular economy

[1] Rémy LE MOIGNE, L’Économie circulaire, Comment la mettre en œuvre dans l’entreprise grâce à la reverse supply chain ?, Dunod, Paris, 2014.