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.
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. 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)
Source: UNEP
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
Popular Posts Last Week
-
National Wildlife Federation Naturalist David Mizejewski explores the relationship between sea ice and polar bears. As continued global warm...
-
New York City's current and former mayors highlight the revitalization of lower Manhattan in the days leading up to the 10th anniversary...
-
UNICEF correspondent Chris Niles reports on Executive Director Anthony Lake's visit to programmes promoting equity for children and wome...
-
EnviroMission Limited is developing Solar Tower renewable energy technology on a global scale. The sun's radiation is used to heat a lar...
-
[ 01/12/2017; 14:00; ] Designers have a critical role to play by envisioning products made with safe materials that can be perpetually cycle...
-
In New Orleans: Recovering From a Post-Katrina 'Brain Drain' : News : Breaking : Climate Central
-
The building of a full size wind turbine blade on the Schuman roundabout in Brussels, right in front of European Union buildings. It has bee...
-
Satellite photographs reveal that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has intensified significantly during the last two months, a trend en...
-
Altaeros Energies is developing a breakthrough airborne wind turbine to produce abundant, low cost, renewable energy. Altaeros uses safe and...
-
Mysterious clouds discovered on Venus are not only helping scientists learn more about Earth's closest planetary neighbor, they also ser...
Popular Posts This Month
-
In New Orleans: Recovering From a Post-Katrina 'Brain Drain' : News : Breaking : Climate Central
-
Persons with disabilities must enjoy full human rights and fundamental freedoms and enabling them to do so benefits society as a whole, Depu...
-
New York City's current and former mayors highlight the revitalization of lower Manhattan in the days leading up to the 10th anniversary...
-
National Wildlife Federation Naturalist David Mizejewski explores the relationship between sea ice and polar bears. As continued global warm...
-
Mooi plan en ook erg ambitieus. Common Woods wordt niet alleen de duurzaamste wijk van Nederland maar ook gelijk van heel Europa. Er komen m...
-
[ 02/12/2021; 00:00; ] Op 2 december is de finale van de SDG-Challenge 2021.2 plaats! Tijdens de SDG-Challenge werken multidisciplinaire stu...
-
At a briefing to announce their summer models for 2011, NTT docomo presented the Xperia acro SO-02C, a smartphone from Sony Ericsson. This m...
-
For several years, increasing numbers of polar bears have been coming into towns in the Chukotka region, on the far north east coast of Russ...
-
Robert Redford calls on the Obama Administration to stop Shell from drilling this summer off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refug...
Popular Posts All Time
-
National Wildlife Federation Naturalist David Mizejewski explores the relationship between sea ice and polar bears. As continued global warm...
-
New York City's current and former mayors highlight the revitalization of lower Manhattan in the days leading up to the 10th anniversary...
-
Leuk idee om de aandacht op een bedrijf te vestigen. Wire & Twine maakte een op zich mooi overzicht van 50 manieren waarmee ze u willen ...
-
In New Orleans: Recovering From a Post-Katrina 'Brain Drain' : News : Breaking : Climate Central
-
NS en Greenwheels lanceren samen de eerste twee Volkswagen e-Golfs. De elektrische deelauto’s zijn vanaf donderdag 13 september te vinden bi...
-
Hundreds of young people converged on the United Nations in New York today as the General Assembly kicked off a high-level meeting devoted t...
-
At IBM's THINK Forum in NYC, Joshua Cooper Ramo, Managing Director, Kissinger Associates comments on not letting the risks of a networke...
-
Persons with disabilities must enjoy full human rights and fundamental freedoms and enabling them to do so benefits society as a whole, Depu...
-
Bridget van Kralingen, General Manager, IBM North America discusses Making the World Work Better at the IBM THINK Forum
-
Never before has a time in history been so significant to so many cultures, religions, scientists and governments. Beyond 2012 looks past th...
No comments :
Post a Comment