Metal Stocks and Recycling Rates: A Presentation of Major findings from IRP scientific assessments

Transcription

1 Metal Stocks and Recycling Rates: A Presentation of Major findings from IRP scientific assessments Shaoyi Li Head of Secretariat, The International Resource Panel United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics Shaoyi.li@unep.org 1

2 Structure of the Presentation The Metals Challenge Metal Stocks in Society and the environmental impact over their life cycle Current knowledge of recycling rates Improvement of Recycling Efficiencies Metal Stocks and Recycling Rates in the Asia- Pacific Region 2

3 The Metals Challenge Metals are essential for economic development Base metals like steel and aluminum, mainly for buildings and infrastructure Precious and specialty metals, like palladium and indium for modern/clean technologies Global demand for metals is increasing E.g. copper and aluminum have doubled in the past 2 decades Rising demand in emerging economies and developing countries Very strong demand growth for many precious and specialty ('technology') metals The increasing global demand for metals causes many problems and challenges Increasing environmental pressures from extraction and manufacturing of raw materials Growing dependence on regional or economic concentrations of natural resources Increasing risks of international crisis Social tensions among local populations (land owner issues etc.) 3

4 Metal Stocks in Society 4

5 Metal Stocks in Society Global Resource Extraction 5

6 Metal Stocks in Society Forecast of the world demand for copper, aluminium and iron 6

7 Metal Stocks in Society 7

8 Environmental Impacts of Metals

9 Environmental Impacts of Metals An open pit copper mine in Chile 9

10 Environmental Impacts of Metals Land Use and Soil Erosion 10

11 Environmental Impacts of Metals Energy and CO2 emissions 11

12 Environmental Impacts of Metals Energy and CO2 emissions 12

13 Recycling Rates of Metals Defining Recycling Rates 13

14 Recycling Rates of Metals EOL-recycling rates 14

15 Recycling Rates of Metals Metal stocks in society are increasing continuously These mines above ground could contribute to decoupling of resource use from economic growth by efficient recycling The IRP s work on metals has shown just moderate or even poor end-of-life recycling rates for many metals Only for a 18 metals, like iron/steel, palladium and platinum, could rates above 50% be stated Many metals show rates below 25%, or even below 1% (for many specialty metals) Serious data gaps on stocks in society and recycling rates have to be closed 15

16 Improvement of Recycling Efficiencies Challenges Product designs that make disassembly and material separation difficult or impossible. A high mobility of products and the unclear material flows that result. These are caused by multiple changes of ownership and sequential locations of use spread around the globe. A generally low awareness about the loss of resources, and missing economic recycling incentives due to low intrinsic value per unit. Lack of an appropriate recycling infrastructure for EOL management of complex products in many developing countries and emerging economies. In industrialized countries, many hibernating goods (products stored in drawers and closets and not yet discarded) and small devices that go into the trash bin (e.g., mobile phones) reduce significantly the recycling efficiencies. Recycling technologies that have not kept pace with complex and elementally diverse modern products. 16

17 Improvement of Recycling Efficiencies Opportunities Research and Data collection Measures of recycling performance Urban mining 17

18 Metal Stocks and Recycling Rates in Asia and the Pacific Data on metal stocks and recycling rates in the AP region is limited. At this moment, few stock estimates are available on a regional basis - only aluminum for Europe, copper for North America and Europe, and stainless steel for several. On a country basis, data exists for Japan, USA, Australia, and several European countries. In Japan, Halada (2008) described a top-down estimate of inuse stocks for some 20 elements; he found that the Japanese in-use stocks of gold, indium, silver, tin, and tantalum were 10 20% of estimated virgin reserves of those metals, indicating the importance of enhanced research efforts for these lessabundant metals. 18

19 Metal Stocks in Asia and the Pacific Aluminium UNEP study shows that aluminum reserves will last at least about 200 years at current production and consumption. Guinea holds the largest bauxite reserves with 7,400 million tons, followed by Australia with 6,200 million tons and Vietnam, Jamaica and Brazil (all about 2,000 million tons). Recycling is an important component in aluminum industry; 2.7 million tons have been recycled from scrap in

20 Metals Stocks in Asia and the Pacific Lead Global lead reserves are at 85 million tons. The country with the most lead reserves is Australia, followed by the United States, China and Canadabetween them, accounting for more than half of the world s primary production of lead; Annual production is approximately 8 million tonnes. Leaded gasoline has been banned in most areas of the world except for a few countries in South America, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, which has led to a 94% decrease in levels of lead in the air decreased by between 1980 and

21 Metals Stocks in Asia and the Pacific Lead 21

22 Metal Stocks in Asia and the Pacific 22

23 Nom du service émetteur mercredi 28 > 23 23

24 Thank You