From the Electronic Wasteyard to the Roundtable of Power
Last week I found myself at the consortium meeting of CLOSER. I write this article in my capacity of former electronic waste sorting specialist. The views expressed are my own, though the hope is shared by all of Dyne.
CLOSER is an ambitious pan-European attempt to build a circular value chain for semiconductor materials recovered from electronic waste.
And you know what? The consortium meeting felt hopeful.
The Room Where It Happens
The meeting was an interesting mix of authority figures (policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, financiers), hackers, thinkers and tinkerers, all united by a single idea: that the precious materials inside our discarded gadgets shouldn't end up in a landfill on another continent, but back in the supply chain, ready to be reborn as something new.
The European Commission, has recognized the "urgent need to address supply risks related to critical raw materials". Finally the realization that we are throwing away all our good stuff to other continents has sunk in.
As President von der Leyen herself put it: "[Europe] learned this lesson painfully with energy; we will not repeat it with critical materials".
Recycling electronic waste isn't just for cipherpunks and hoarders anymore. It's strategic autonomy. It's sovereignty. It's the kind of language that gets attention.
A Brief Detour to the Glory Days of Trash
All of this brought me back to a simpler time in Stockholm, the winter of 2006. A time when I worked at the waste yard for electronic garbage.
My job was beautiful in its simplicity: receive the bins from the truck and do the first round of sorting. Every day was Christmas. A new computer, a new phone, a new opportunity to marvel at humanity's ability to discard perfectly functional technology because the screen was 0.3 millimeters thinner than the previous model. On one wall of my workspace, I stacked kitchen radios. Dozens of discarded but perfectly working devices. All tuned to the same FM station. All blazing electronic music over the yard in perfect synchronization.
The job was essentially like working on a second-hand market for high-end electronics, inside a discotheque, except everything was free (Full body workout included: phat TVs were heavy!). The business model was so absurd it would make a venture capitalist weep with confusion: the trash yard would get paid to receive garbage, sort it and then sell it.
Almost like if the baker was paid to receive the flour he uses to bake the bread.
"You want me to recycle your old iPhone? Sure, pay me €50. Oh, you want me to take the gold out of it and sell it back to you? That'll be another €200, please."
All of the hallmarks of a broken system.
The Circle of (Electronic) Life
Now, years later, I'm watching a new logic play out at a European level. This time, it's not a single scrappy yard but an entire consortium spanning across Europe, working together under the CLOSER umbrella. The project aims to recover critical materials like silicon, gallium, indium, and germanium from e‑waste: the very elements that power our phones, our electric cars, and our digital sovereignty. And Europe, to its great credit, has recognised that relying on a handful of external suppliers for these materials is not just an economic risk, but a strategic vulnerability.
What strikes me most is the sheer scale of the ambition. The same people who once paid my former employer to take their old monitors are now funding researchers, policymakers, and engineers to build a closed‑loop system that keeps those materials in the continent. It's not irony: it's responsibility. And it's about time.
The CLOSER initiative isn't just recycling; it's rethinking. It's about creating a common vocabulary, a shared infrastructure, and a regulatory framework that makes circularity the default, not the exception. That takes courage, political will, and yes, a fair share of acronyms! But for once, those acronyms are pointing in the right direction.
Why Forkbomb Belongs Here
And this is where I felt genuinely proud. Proud to be part of dyne.org's spinoff private company: https://forkbomb.solutions/
Because if you're going to build a system that keeps materials in use for as long as possible, minimizing waste and pollution, then you need more than just good intentions and EU funding. You need the right partners.
Dynes are the obvious choice for these types of projects. We're experts in circular economy. We've been building open-source infrastructure for circular networks, managing material flows, and enabling cities and regions to produce what they consume. We've worked on the Circular & Fair ICT Pact, on Digital Product Passports, on all the essential pieces of infrastructure that make circularity actually work.
We don't just talk about circular economy. We build it. With code. With community. With a stubborn refusal to accept that the way we do things now is the way we have to keep doing them.
The Hopeful Conclusion
So yes, I left that consortium meeting feeling incredibly hopeful. Because good people are trying hard to fix the mess we've made of our planet. Because the language is changing. Because "recycling electronic waste" is no longer a niche concern for environmentalists, but a strategic imperative for the entire continent.
And because I know that when the time comes to actually build the infrastructure, to create the systems, the software, the digital passports, the material tracking: Forkbomb and all its dynes will be there.
Dynes have been doing this for decades. We know how to take garbage and turn it into something valuable. Sometimes we do it with a wall of discarded kitchen radios blasting electronic music in the background. Maybe I'll suggest we try that at the consortium party. It wouldn't hurt.
