Metals recycling: economic and environmental implications Robert U. Ayres *
INSEAD, Boule6ard de Constance, F-77305, Fontainebleau, France
Received 17 July 1997; accepted 27 July 1997
Abstract
We are in a period of economic transition. The ‘cowboy economy’ of the past is obsolescent, if not obsolete. Environmental services are no longer free goods, and this fact is driving major changes. Recycling is the wave of the (immediate) future. The potential savings in terms of energy and capital have long been obvious. The savings in terms of reduced environmental impact are less obvious but increasingly important. The obstacle to greater use recycling has been the fact that economies of scale still favor large primary mining and smelting complexes over (necessarily) smaller and less centralized recyclers. But this advantage is declining over time as the inventory of potentially recyclable metals in industrialized society grows to the point that efficient collection and logistic systems, and efficient markets, justify significant investments in recycling. Increasing energy and other resource costs, together with increasing costs of waste treatment and disposal, will favor this shift in any case. But government policies, driven by unemployment and environmental concerns, taken together, may accelerate the shift by gradually reducing taxes on labor and increasing taxes on extractive resource use. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.
Keywords: Pollution; Environment; Sustainability; Re-use; Re-manufacturing; Recycling;
Metals; Mining; Overburden; Gangue
* Tel.: _33 1 64987672; e-mail: Ayres@INSEAD.FR
0921-3449:97:$17.00 © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII S0921-3449(97)00033-5
146 R.U. Ayres : Resources, Conser6ation and Recycling 21 (1997) 145–173
1. Background: the present situation
Economic development in the developing countries over the next half century, at recent growth
References: Resource Flows: The Material Basis of Industrial Economies. Washington DC: World Resources Institute, 1997:57. [4] United States Bureau of Mines Minerals Yearbook, vol. 1. Chapter: Recycling non-ferrous metals, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1993:924–925, Tables 1, 2. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1994. [6] United States Bureau of Mines, Mineral Facts and Problems. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1975. [7] United States Bureau of Mines, Mineral Commodity Summaries. Chapter: Sulfur, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1994:170–171. [9] Feshbach M, Friendly A Jr. Ecocide in Russia: Health and Nature Under Siege. New York: Basic Books, 1992. [13] Azar C, Holmberg J, Lindgren K. Socio-economic Indicators for Sustainability, Research Report, Goteborg, Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology and University of Goteborg, 1994. [15] Barnett HJ, Morse C. Scarcity and Growth: The Economics of Resource Scarcity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962. [16] Smith VK, editor. Scarcity and Growth Revisited. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. [17] McGannon HE, editor. The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel. Pittsburgh, PA: United States Steel Corporation, 1971. [19] Gaines LL. Energy and Material Flows in the Copper Industry (Technical Memo). Argonne. IL: Argonne National Laboratory, 1980 (Prepared for the United States Department of Energy). R.U. Ayres : Resources, Conser6ation and Recycling 21 (1997) 145–173 173 [22] Forrest D, Szekely J Austria: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, 1991. (S0144093-4). Columbus OH: Battelle-Columbus Laboratories, June 27, 1975 (Prepared for U.S. [25] Davis WE. National Inventory of Sources and Emissions: Barium, Boron, Copper, Selenium and Zinc 1969—Copper, Section III, (APTD-1129) [26] Davis WE. National Inventory of Sources and Emissions: Barium, Boron, Copper, Selenium and Zinc 1969—Zinc, Section V, (APTD-1139) [27] Davis WE. National Inventory of Sources and Emissions: Mercury, 1968, (APTD-1510). Leawood, KS: W.E [33] Watson JW, Brooks KJ. A Review of Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources—Secondary Lead Smelters (MTR-7871) [35] Stahel WR, The product life factor, In: Orr editor. An Inquiry into the Nature of Sustainable Societies: The Role of the Private Sector (Series: 1982 Mitchell Prize Papers), NARC, 1982. [38] Denison EF. Why Growth Rates Differ. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1967. [39] Denison EF. Accounting for Slower Growth. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1979. [40] Denison EF. Trends in American Economic Growth, 1929–1982. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1985.