“In spite of significant efforts in a number of countries and regions, many metal recycling rates are discouragingly low, and a ‘recycling society’ appears no more than a distant hope,” said the authors of the study, titled “Recycling Rates of Metals: A Status Report”.
The report done by the U.N.E.P. is the first effort to gather accurate and consistent information regarding the extent of the collection, processing, and level of reused metal in new products, said Thomas Graedel, a professor of industrial ecology at Yale University and one of the report’s eight authors.
Of some 60 metals studied, less than one-third of it have an end-of-life recycling rate above 50 percent, while 34 elements, which include gallium, lithium, scandium, and boron, only have 1 percent of them recycled. Many of the 34 elements are crucial to clean technologies such as batteries for hybrid cars, magnets in wind turbines, and metals used in solar cells.
“In theory, metals can be used over and over again, minimizing the need to mine and process virgin materials and thus saving substantial amounts of energy and water while minimizing environmental degradation,” said Achim Steiner, United Nations undersecretary general and U.N.E.P.’s executive director.
It is estimated that recycling metals is between two and ten times more energy efficiency than smelting the metals from virgin ores. Extraction of metals alone currently accounts for 7 percent of the world’s energy consumption, while its emissions prove to be a significant contributor to climate change.
Rare earth metals might run out
The report states that the era of cheap and easily accessible ores is running out. It is estimated that about three times more material needs to be moved for the same ore extraction than a century ago, along with it is land disruption, water impacts, and energy use.
Globally, metals like indium that is used in semiconductors and photovoltaics, are not recycled at all. Similar to tellurium and selenium that is used for high efficiency solar cells, or neodymium and dysprosium which are used for wind turbine magnets, are not at all recycled.
“By failing to recycle metals and simply disposing of these kinds of metals, economies are foregoing important environmental benefits and increasing the possibilities of shortages,” said Mr. Graedel.
“If we do not have these materials readily available at reasonable prices, a lot of modern technology simply cannot happen,” the professor warned.
In a study conducted by the Oeko-Institut, a leading European research and consultancy institute, the authors suggested that since there is a high dependency to rare earth metals, a scarce material, it should be recycled.
Presently, Europe is one of the world’s largest consumers of rare earth metals. A strategy presented in the study is for Europe to cooperate with China on environmental protection in mining and the implementation of general efforts to realize the sustainable production of rare earth metals.
According to their report, China has over 52 million tons of proved industrial reserves of rare earth metals. A large percentage of these rare earth metals can be found in Bayan Obo, Inner Mongolia. While China holds only 30 percent of global rare earth reserves, the country produces more than 95 percent of the world’s total supply.
Knowing this, the country has implemented a series of policies and measures to regulate the rare earth industry to address the environmental concerns. Last December 2010, the minister of commerce, Chen Deming, announced that 2011’s first batch of export quotas would only be 14,446 tons, which is 11 percent lower than the corresponding figure for last year.
But the U.N.E.P. authors pointed out that it is not yet possible to estimate how close the industry is to a shortage of the rare earth metals.
“We don’t think immediate shortages are likely, but we are absolutely unable to make predictions based on the very limited geological exploration currently conducted,” Mr. Graedel noted.
