Metal Stocks and Sustainability

The relative proportions of metal residing in ore in the lithosphere, in use in products providing services, and in waste deposits measure our progress from exclusive use of virgin ore toward full dependence on sustained use of recycled metal. In the U.S. at present, the copper contents of these thr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 103; no. 5; pp. 1209 - 1214
Main Authors:	Gordon, R. B., Bertram, M., Graedel, T. E.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States National Academy of Sciences 31-01-2006 National Acad Sciences
Series:	From the Cover
Subjects:	Air pollution Conservation of Natural Resources Copper Copper - chemistry Copper - economics Economic resources Electronics Lead - chemistry Lithospheres Manufactured Materials - economics Materials Metals Metals - chemistry Mineral resources Mining - economics Nickel - chemistry Photography Physical Sciences Platinum Platinum - chemistry Recycling Silver Silver - chemistry Solders Stainless Steel - chemistry Tin Tin - chemistry Zinc Zinc - chemistry USA
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Summary:	The relative proportions of metal residing in ore in the lithosphere, in use in products providing services, and in waste deposits measure our progress from exclusive use of virgin ore toward full dependence on sustained use of recycled metal. In the U.S. at present, the copper contents of these three repositories are roughly equivalent, but metal in service continues to increase. Providing today's developed-country level of services for copper worldwide (as well as for zinc and, perhaps, platinum) would appear to require conversion of essentially all of the ore in the lithosphere to stock-in-use plus near-complete recycling of the metals from that point forward.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Author contributions: R.B.G. and T.E.G. designed research; R.B.G. and M.B. performed research; R.B.G. and M.B. analyzed data; and R.B.G. and T.E.G. wrote the paper. To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: thomas.graedel@yale.edu. Edited by William C. Clark, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved December 5, 2005 Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared. This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office. Present address: Recycling Division, European Aluminium Association/Organisation of European Aluminium Refiners and Remelters, Avenue de Broqueville 12, 1150 Brussels, Belgium. Abbreviation: GDP, gross domestic product.
ISSN:	0027-8424 1091-6490
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.0509498103