Ashes from the incineration of biomass, municipal solid waste and sewage sludge are underutilised. In Europe, approximately 25 million tonnes annually end up mostly in landfills. As a result, a significant number of metals, nutrients, rare-earth elements and industrially valuable minerals contained in the ashes are lost. The EU-funded AshCycle project will investigate new methods for recovering useful elements contained in the ashes. Recovered raw materials will be processed into a form suitable for industrial use. Pilot demonstration projects will be carried out in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland and South Africa.