Our modern society needs metals and minerals, but can these needs be met through recovery? What metals can be recovered, and to what extent?
Recycling IN SWEDEN
The world’s need of metals and minerals is great and growing. Recovery and recycling are among the most energy-effective actions to limit the environmental impact of the mining and minerals industry. Our society generates huge quantities of waste. The development of among other things electronic products in the last decade has been very fast, as regards both the volume and number of products. At the same time, decreasing quantities of raw materials are used per product. This development is expected to continue, in turn making the lifecycle of the products shorter and shorter. Recovery therefore is becoming increasingly important, while becoming a growing challenge. A mobile telephone today can contain around 70 different elements, many of which are metallic elements whose recovery is of interest.
In Sweden we are good at metal recovery. Since the 1950s the recovery of precious metals and scrap containing iron, steel and base metals has drastically increased, steel scrap from 50 per cent to 92 per cent by the year 2010. As regards other less common metals, recovery is still at a modest level, but nevertheless we take care of about half of Europe’s electronic waste in this country.
Sweden’s metal producing industry, one of our most important base industries representing high proportion of our export, largely takes its raw materials from Sweden’s bedrock. But it also uses a high proportion of recovered metals. The table on the right shows the use of different metals in Sweden, and our production and how much is recycled, based on international statistics.
Use, mining production and recovery of metals in Sweden, in tonnes (WBMS April 2014, SGU 2014:3, UNCTAD 2013).
Circular economy
A circular economy means that one reduces society’s need of prime raw materials through everything from better product design and new business models to improved technology, control methods and awareness, along with recovery and recycling. There are several important principles behind the circular economy:
Waste is seen as a resource, now or in the future.
Products are given a smarter design to simplify recovery.
As far as possible, use recoverable and non-toxic materials to secure resource effective and toxin free cycles.
Maximise the lifetime of products through repair, upgrade and forms for trading in products at the distributor.
Simplify recovery through source separation and collecting materials.
The circular economy. Illustration: SGU.
WHAT METALS ARE RECOVERABLE?
Several metals, such as copper, steel and aluminium, are easy to recover. Recovery is often carried out by resmelting the metal and manufacturing new products. The process is simpler the more metal is present and if the metals do not need to be separated from each other. An aluminium can, for example, is simpler to recover than a circuit board of the same size, since the aluminium can be resmelted into new cans. The circuit board on the other hand contains many components and metals that must be separated. This can be done by crushing the circuit board into a powder and using different methods such as magnetism, density and chemicals to separate the metals and then resmelt them.
Some metals, such as rare earth metals, indium and beryllium, are difficult or impossible to recover using today’s technology. This can be for several reasons, including ineffective separation, the resmelting removes desired properties or that volumes are insufficient to make recovery profitable.
Degrees of recovery of 60 different metals in our society. For more than half, less than 1 per cent is recovered. Several of these metals are used in new technology and are so-called "critical materials” which are needed among other things in electric cars, mobile telephones, wind turbines and solar cells. Source: Source: UNEP 2013 (United Nations Environmental Programme).
IS RECOVERY SUFFICIENT?
The production of metals and minerals has never been as great as it is today, both from mining and recovery. At the same time, we are using more material than ever. Our increased need of new technology, means of transport, energy and food creates major challenges for raw material suppliers. Recovery is an energy effective way to produce raw materials, but is it sufficient to cover our increased needs? There are several influencing factors, above all access to waste for recovery and whether the right technology is available. Another important aspect is whether or not recovery is socio-economically and environmentally effective. It can for example be better to deposit waste, since it could release hazardous substances when recovered. Recovery might also be uneconomical if the technology is extremely energy consuming or if there is no demand within a reasonable transport radius.
Copper is one of the most recoverable metals: it retains its properties after resmelting, and is often found in large quantities without the need to separate it, for example in electricity cables. Despite this, recovery meets only around 30 per cent of the world’s need every year according to ICSG*. This is perhaps because copper is used for a very long time, up to decades. Almost all the copper that has been extracted is currently being used in the community.
Steel, which is used among other things in infrastructure and vehicles, is the world’s most recovered material. About 650 M t of steel came from recovered material in 2016 (Worldsteel**). By recovering steel, about 70 per cent of energy can be saved (Worldsteel) and carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 58 per cent (BIR***). In all, about 40 per cent of the world’s steel comes from recovered material every year (BIR).
Iron, base and precious metals are easier to recover than many of the other metals we use in our society, yet recovery does not meet the demand. For many less common metals, for example the rare earth metals cobalt and lithium, recovery amounts to less than 1 per cent. These are needed among other things for "green technology" such as electric cars, batteries and wind turbines. The high demand for metals and minerals means that recovery can at best only partially meet the demand.
