Losses and lifetimes of metals in the economy

Alexandre Charpentier Poncelet, Christoph Helbig, Philippe Loubet, Antoine Beylot (), Stéphanie Muller (), Jacques Villeneuve, Bertrand Laratte, Andrea Thorenz, Axel Tuma and Guido Sonnemann
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Alexandre Charpentier Poncelet: ISM - Institut des Sciences Moléculaires - UB - Université de Bordeaux - École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie et de Physique de Bordeaux (ENSCPB) - INC-CNRS - Institut de Chimie - CNRS Chimie - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Christoph Helbig: UNIA - Universität Augsburg [Deutschland] = University of Augsburg [Germany] = Université d'Augsburg [Allemagne], Universität Bayreuth [Deutschland] = University of Bayreuth [Germany] = Université de Bayreuth [Allemagne]
Philippe Loubet: ISM - Institut des Sciences Moléculaires - UB - Université de Bordeaux - École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie et de Physique de Bordeaux (ENSCPB) - INC-CNRS - Institut de Chimie - CNRS Chimie - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Antoine Beylot: BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières
Stéphanie Muller: BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières
Jacques Villeneuve: BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières
Bertrand Laratte: I2M - Institut de Mécanique et d'Ingénierie - UB - Université de Bordeaux - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Arts et Métiers Sciences et Technologies
Andrea Thorenz: UNIA - Universität Augsburg [Deutschland] = University of Augsburg [Germany] = Université d'Augsburg [Allemagne]
Axel Tuma: UNIA - Universität Augsburg [Deutschland] = University of Augsburg [Germany] = Université d'Augsburg [Allemagne]
Guido Sonnemann: ISM - Institut des Sciences Moléculaires - UB - Université de Bordeaux - École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie et de Physique de Bordeaux (ENSCPB) - INC-CNRS - Institut de Chimie - CNRS Chimie - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: The consumption of most metals continues to rise following ever-increasing population growth, affluence and technological development. Sustainability considerations urge greater resource efficiency and retention of metals in the economy. We model the fate of a yearly cohort of 61 extracted metals over time and identify where losses are expected to occur through a life-cycle lens. We find that ferrous metals have the longest lifetimes, with 150 years on average, followed by precious, non-ferrous and specialty metals with 61, 50 and 12 years on average, respectively. Production losses are the largest for 15 of the studied metals whereas use losses are the largest for barium, mercury and strontium. Losses to waste management and recycling are the largest for 43 metals, suggesting the need to improve design for better sorting and recycling and to ensure longer-lasting products, in combination with improving waste-management practices. Compared with the United Nations Environmental Programme's recycling statistics, our results show the importance of taking a life-cycle perspective to estimate losses of metals to develop effective circular economy strategies. We provide the dataset and model used in a machine-readable format to allow further research on metal cycles.

Keywords: Business and industry; Environmental sciences; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03702553v1
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Published in Nature Sustainability, 2022, 5, pp.717-726. ⟨10.1038/s41893-022-00895-8⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03702553

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-022-00895-8

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