Copper has a high potential to become a leading example in closing the loops of metal cycles since recycled and refined copper keeps its physical properties (International Copper Study Group, 2017). However, copper is far away from a circular material cycle, with an End-of-life (EoL) recycling rate of 40 % and a recycling input rate of 34 % on average over the last ten years (International Copper Study Group, 2022). Such low numbers in EoL recycling and use of secondary material particularly raise concerns since copper is an essential material for the global energy transition (World Bank Group & EGPS, 2017), which might be slowed by increasing copper prices (Boer et al., 2021; International Energy Agency, 2021) A variety of demand scenarios suggest that due to the Energy Transition and economic growth the total copper demand in 2050 is likely to increase by 140 % relative to demand in 2010 (Watari et al., 2022a), which might lead to considerable environmental and social impacts, from biodiversity loss to human rights violations due to copper mining activities (Ettler et al., 2009; Lèbre et al., 2020; Parsons et al., 2001; Piatak et al., 2015; Potysz et al., 2018). The share of copper in the total ore extraction related to Energy Transition core technologies lies between 60 % and 70 % with copper being a cornerstone for all electricity-related technologies (International Energy Agency, 2021; Nijnens et al., 2023). Thus, it is important to mitigate the local pressures from copper mining sites by increasing the overall resource efficiency of the copper cycle to prevent the emergency of a trade-off scenario between the critical imperative of mitigating climate change and pursuing other sustainable development goals.
