Can we live without raw materials?

Essential aspects of life in the EU and other developed countries are becoming increasingly ‘dematerialised’, a process accelerated by the recent pandemic. Access to the internet and IT equipment has become indispensable. Think of banking, travel booking, or even your insurance services, and many other areas. Materials that are currently considered ‘critical’ are omnipresent in European citizens’ lives – the very reason they are considered ‘critical’. Take a smartphone for example. It can vibrate thanks to tungsten, there are gold contacts in your SIM card, the electronics and the battery charger use tantalum capacitors, and it can recognize your fingers thanks to indium-tin oxide-coated glass. Electric cars and scooters need for example neodynium for magnets in their motors, as do wind-turbines to provide green electricity.