Critical Raw Material in Circular Economy Context for Europe: A Decision Tree and Two-Step Cluster Analysis Approach

In the context of the circular economy, both secondary and primary raw materials must be managed rationally. The major challenge for the production industries is to optimize these resources in an intelligent and sustainable way so that the production-consumption balance is maintained. This is due to the fact that, being finite natural resources, responsible management in upstream, midstream and downstream operations are highly important to ensure the continuity of production and to meet the demands of global consumption. In order to analyze the situation of the European Union countries, the two-step cluster analysis, Student t test and decision tree has been used. The results indicate a number of three clusters group as follows: cluster 1 formed only by the EU27 countries, cluster 2 formed by a percent of 59% of EU15 countries and the cluster 3 formed by a percent of 41% of EU15 countries. The decision tree finds out that the best predictor for secondary raw materials in Europe which differ between EU15 and EU27 countries are: HDI GDP/capita, trade in recyclable raw materials-export extra EU27 and population by educational attainment level – less than primary and lower than secondary education (level 0–2). Definitely, there must be comprehensive harmonization in all member states, facilitating the circularity of the best policies for product design, life cycle analysis and management of critical raw materials to ensure the transition in the process of searching for alternative raw materials.