ELECTROCYCLING GMBH

Their core work

Electrocycling is a German electronic waste recycling company based in Goslar that specializes in the disassembly, separation, and recovery of valuable materials from end-of-life electronics. Their H2020 involvement focuses on bringing industrial recycling expertise to robotics and automation research — they serve as the real-world testbed and domain expert for projects developing automated e-waste disassembly systems. They work at the intersection of urban mining (extracting technology metals from printed circuit boards and mobile phones) and advanced robotics, providing the recycling process knowledge that robot developers need to build practical disassembly solutions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early work (2015-2019, ADIR) was rooted in traditional urban mining — automated disassembly of printed circuit boards and mobile phones to recover technology metals. By 2017-2021, they moved toward understanding robotic action planning (IMAGINE). Their most recent project (ReconCycle, 2020-2024) brings these threads together: self-reconfiguring robot workcells that use AI-driven skill learning and semantic analysis to handle the unpredictable nature of e-waste disassembly.

Electrocycling is moving from being a recycling process expert toward becoming an integration partner for intelligent, adaptive robotic disassembly systems — expect them to seek projects combining AI perception with circular economy applications.

How they like to work

Electrocycling participates exclusively as a partner, never as coordinator — they bring industrial domain expertise to research-led consortia rather than driving the research agenda themselves. With 20 unique partners across 8 countries in just 3 projects, they work in medium-to-large consortia and appear to be a valued industry partner that research groups seek out when they need a real e-waste recycling environment to validate their technology. This makes them a low-risk, high-value partner: they know their role and deliver industrial grounding.

Despite only 3 projects, they have built a network of 20 partners across 8 countries — a wide reach for their size, suggesting they are well-connected in the European robotics-for-recycling community. Their partnerships span multiple EU member states, indicating strong European integration.

What sets them apart

Electrocycling occupies a rare niche: they are a working e-waste recycling company that actively participates in robotics and AI research. Most recycling firms don't engage in EU research; most robotics labs lack access to real recycling operations. This makes them an ideal industrial validation partner for any project that needs to test automated disassembly, material sorting, or circular economy robotics in a genuine production environment.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ADIR
  Their largest project (EUR 450,888) and most aligned with their core business — next-generation urban mining with automated disassembly of PCBs and mobile phones.
• ReconCycle
  Represents their evolution into AI-driven robotics: self-reconfiguring workcells with skill learning and soft robots applied to e-waste recycling.
• IMAGINE
  A bridge project connecting their recycling expertise with fundamental robotics research on action understanding and effect prediction.