Less than one-third
of 60 metals studied have end-of-life recycling
rate above 50%; 34 are under 1%
Among recommendations: Boost waste management
in developing economies,end hoarding of
old phones and other electronic products
London/Brussels, 26 May 2011 Smarter product
designs, support for developing country
waste management schemes, and encouraging
developed country households not to 'squirrel
away' old electronic goods in drawers and
closets could help boost recycling of metals
worldwide.
According to a report
released today by the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), recycling rates of metals
are in many cases far lower than their potential
for re-use.
Less than one-third
of some 60 metals studied have an end-of-life
recycling rate above 50 per cent and 34
elements are below 1 per cent recycling,
yet many of them are crucial to clean technologies
such as batteries for hybrid cars to the
magnets in wind turbines, says the study.
"In spite of significant
efforts in a number of countries and regions,
many metal recycling rates are discouragingly
low, and a 'recycling society' appears no
more than a distant hope," states the
Recycling Rates of Metals: A Status Report,
compiled by UNEP's International Resource
Panel.
The weak performance
is especially frustrating because, unlike
some other resources, metals are "inherently
recyclable," says the study, released
at the London Metal Exchange in the United
Kingdom, and in Brussels at 'Green Week'
by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and UNEP's Executive Director.
"In theory, metals
can be used over and over again, minimizing
the need to mine and process virgin materials
and thus saving substantial amounts of energy
and water while minimizing environmental
degradation. Raising levels of recycling
world-wide can therefore contribute to a
transition to a low carbon, resource efficient
Green Economy while assisting to generate
'green jobs'," said Mr. Steiner.
Indeed, by some estimates
recycling metals is between two and 10 times
more energy efficient than smelting the
metals from virgin ores. Meanwhile extraction
alone currently accounts for seven per cent
of the world's energy consumption, with
emissions contributing significantly to
climate change.
A separate report by
the Panel, also released today in Brussels,
looks at 'decoupling' economic growth rates
from rates of resource use and notes that
extraction of ores and minerals grew 27
fold during the 20th century—a rate higher
than world economic growth.
It cites evidence that
the era of cheap and easily accessible ores
is running out. For example, about three
times more material needs to be moved for
the same ore extraction than a century ago,
with corresponding increases in land disruption,
water impacts and energy use.
Says John Atherton,
Director, International Council on Mining
and Metals (ICMM) speaking today at the
launch of the Recycling Rates of Metals
report: "We hope this report encourages
policy makers and product designers to adopt
life cycle thinking when planning for materials
recycling."
The landmark report
is the first attempt to gather accurate
and consistent information about the extent
to which metals are collected, processed
and reused in new products, says Thomas
Graedel, a professor of industrial ecology
at Yale University and one of the report's
eight authors.
"Previously published
recycling rates were defined in different
ways," he says. "The data were
highly variable and we couldn't be sure
how to draw comparisons between published
numbers. The work will help assess recycling
rates in future and ways to improve our
success moving forward."
Recycling Rates and
Specialty Metals
The report says lead
is the most recycled metal: Nearly 80 per
cent of products that contain lead – mainly
batteries – are recycled when they reach
the end of their useful life.
More than half of the
iron and other main components of steel
and stainless steel, as well as platinum,
gold, silver and most other precious metals,
are recycled.
But even here there
are wide variations with, for example, 70
to 90 per cent of gold in industrial applications
recycled versus only 10 to 15 per cent of
gold in electronic goods.
Meanwhile, globally
there is virtually no recycling of the rest,
including metals like Indium used in semiconductors,
energy efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs),
advanced medical imaging and photovoltaics.
The story is similar
with other specialty metals like tellurium
and selenium, used for high efficiency solar
cells, and for neodymium and dysprosium
used for wind turbine magnets, lanthanum
for hybrid vehicle batteries, and gallium
used for LEDs.
"By failing to
recycle metals and simply disposing of these
kinds of metal, economies are foregoing
important environmental benefits and increasing
the possibility of shortages," says
Dr Graedel. "If we do not have these
materials readily available at reasonable
prices, a lot of modern technology simply
cannot happen."
It is not yet possible
to estimate how close industry is to a shortage
of these specialty or rare earth metals,
mainly because so little is known about
the potential of mining to continue as their
main source.
"We don't think
immediate shortages are likely," says
Dr Graedel, "but we are absolutely
unable to make predictions based on the
very limited geological exploration currently
conducted."
"In principle,
the amount of recycling of metal offsets
the same amount of metals that need to be
mined," says Guido Sonnemann of UNEP,
an innovation and product life cycle management
expert. "Because demand for metals
overall is increasing, recycling can't offset
all mining but can contribute to a more
sustainable mining industry."
Boosting Waste Management
to Clearing out the Closet
There report makes several
recommendations on how recycling could be
boosted world-wide:
• Encouraging product
design that makes disassembly and material
separation easier
• Improving waste management
and recycling infrastructure for complex
end-of-life products in developing countries
and emerging economies
• In industrialized
countries, addressing the fact that many
metal-containing products are 'hibernating'
in places likes drawers and closets and
others, such as mobile phones, are all too
often ending up in dustbins
Says Nick Nuttall, UNEP
Spokesperson: "I am as guilty as anyone
here. Like a squirrel or a magpie, my home
and office drawers and cupboards are packed
with old mobile phone chargers, USB cables,
defunct laptops and the like. I somehow
imagine that they might come in useful one
day—but of course they never do as they
have been superceded by the latest model."
Another recommendation:
Improve recycling technologies and collection
systems to keep pace with ever more complex
products created with an increasingly diverse
range of metals and alloys.
"More and more
products use an ever wider range of components
with highly specialized materials with very
special properties. Without them, performance
would suffer – slower computers, fuzzier
medical images, heavier and slower aircraft,
for example. Recovering such element is
a recycling challenge requiring a far smarter
response than at present," says Dr
Graedel.
Quotable Quotes
"The report makes
available to governments and industry the
relevant baseline information on metal recycling
rates, also at a global scale, to foster
recycling and make more intelligent and
targeted decisions on metals management
worldwide. This is the first time ever that
this information has been brought together
in such a comprehensive way.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of UNEP,
which hosts the Panel
"The report on
recycling rates of metals, containing stupendous
figures of low recycling rates of most of
the high tech "spice" metals,
calls for strategic action to increase the
recovery of those metals. Industrial design
should be improved with a view of easy recovery
even of small quantities of them, and advanced
techniques of separating metals should be
developed. Fascinating tasks for a new generation
of engineers!"
Ernst U. von Weizsaecker,
co-chair of the Panel
Recycling rates reported
for the 60 elements studied:
More than 50 per cent
recycling: 18 elements
1. Lead (main use: batteries)
2. Gold (main uses: jewelry, electronics)
3. Silver (main uses: electronics, industrial
applications (catalysts, batteries, glass/mirrors),
jewelry);
4. Aluminium (main uses: in construction
and transportation)
5. Tin (main uses: cans and solders)
6. Copper (main uses: conducting electricity
and heat)
7. Chromium (main use: stainless steels)
8. Nickel (main uses: stainless steels and
super-alloys)
9. Niobium (main uses: high strength / low
alloy steels and super-alloys)
10. Manganese (main use: steel)
11. Zinc (main uses: coating steel - galvanizing)
12. Iron (the basis and chief constituent
of all ferrous metals)
13. Cobalt (main uses: super-alloys, catalysts,
batteries)
14. Rhenium (a super-alloy component; main
uses: gas turbines (perhaps 60% of use),
and catalysts)
15. Titanium (main uses: paint, transportation)
16-18. Palladium, Platinum, Rhodium (main
use of all three: auto catalysts)
25 to 50 per cent recycling: 3 elements
1. Magnesium (main uses:
construction and transportation)
2. Molybdenum (main uses: high-performance
stainless steels)
3. Iridium (main uses: electro-chemistry,
crucibles for mono-crystal growing, spark
plugs)
10 to 25 per cent recycling:
3 elements
1. Tungsten (main use: carbide cutting tools)
2. Ruthenium (main uses: electronics (hard
disk drives), process catalysts / electrochemistry)
3. Cadmium (main uses: batteries (85%),
pigments (10%))
1 to 10 per cent recycling:
2 elements
1. Mercury (largely
being phased out; main remaining uses: chlorine
/ caustic soda production)
2. Antimony (main uses: flame retardant
(65% of use), lead acid batteries (23%))
Less than 1 per cent
recycling: 34 elements
1. Beryllium (main use:
electronics)
2. Gallium (main use: electronics: ICs,
LEDs, diodes, solar cells
3. Indium (main use: as a coating in flat-panel
displays)
4. Selenium (main uses: manufacturing glass,
manganese production, LEDs, photovoltaics,
infrared optics)
5. Strontium (main uses: pyrotechnics, ferrite
ceramic magnets for electronics)
6. Tantalum (main uses: in capacitors in
electronics)
7. Germanium (main uses: in night vision
(infrared) lenses (30%), PET catalysts (30%),
solar cell concentrators, fiber optics)
8. Erbium (main use: fiber-optics)
9. Tellurium (main uses: steel additives,
solar cells, thermo-electronics)
10. Hafnium (main uses: in nuclear reactors,
and to a small degree in electronics)
11. Zirconium (main use: in nuclear reactors)
12. Thallium (occasional use in medical
equipment)
13. Vanadium (main use: high strength-low
alloy steels)
14. Arsenic (Arsenic metal is used in semiconductors
(electronics, photovoltaics) and as an alloying
element; Arsenic oxide is used in wood preservatives
and glass manufacture)
15. Barium (main uses: drilling fluid (perhaps
80% of use); as a filler in plastic, paint
and rubber (about 20%)
16. Bismuth (principal uses: metallurgical
additive and alloy constituent)
17. Lithium (main use: in batteries)
18. Lanthanum (main use: in batteries)
19. Scandium (main uses: in aluminium alloys)
20. Yttrium (main use: as a phosphor)
21. Europium (main use: as a phosphor)
22. Ytterbium (main use: as a phosphor)
23. Lutetium (main use: a scintillator in
computerized tomography)
24. Cerium (main use: as a catalyst)
25. Osmium (occasionally used as a catalyst,
but has little industrial importance)
26. Thulium (no significant uses)
27. Praseodymium (main use: glass manufacturing
and magnets)
28. Gadolinium (main use: in ceramics and
magnets)
29. Boron (main uses: in glass, ceramics,
magnets)
30-34: Neodymium, Samarium, Terbium, Dysprosium,
Holmium (main use for all five: in magnets)
To download the report
"Recycling Rates of Metals: A Status
Report": www.unep.org/resourcepanel/metals_recycling
Co-authors:
Thomas Graedel, Prof. of Industrial Ecology,
Yale University, USA
Julian Allwood, Cambridge University, UK
Jean-Pierre Birat, Arcelor-Mittal, France
Matthias Buchert, Öko-Institut, Germany
Christian Hagelüken, Umicore Precious
Metals Refining, Germany/Belgium
Barbara K. Reck, Yale Universisty, USA
Scott F. Sibley, U.S. Geological Survey,
USA
Guido Sonnemann, UNEP Division of Technology,
Industry and Economics, France
To download the report
"Decoupling natural resource use and
environmental impacts from economic growth":
www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Publications/Decoupling/tabid/56048/Default.aspx
About the Resource Panel
Some 27 high-level experts
form the International Panel for Sustainable
Resource Management, created in late 2007
to provide the scientific impetus for decoupling
economic growth and resource use from environmental
degradation. The objectives of the Resource
Panel are to:
* Provide independent,
coherent and authoritative scientific assessments
of policy relevance on the sustainable use
of natural resources and in particular their
environmental impacts over the full life
cycle; and
* Contribute to a better
understanding of how to decouple economic
growth from environmental degradation.
For more information: www.unep.fr/scp/rpanel
