Is the Circular Economy strategy leading to an end of traditional mining?
The circular economy strategy of the EU aims to close the loop of materials through re-use and recycling. Re-use and recycling have several ecological benefits: they generally reduce primary resource consumption, landfilling of waste, as well as energy consumption and emissions related to primary production of materials. One could imagine an economy which is becoming entirely independent from primary resources (mining of the geosphere) by satisfying its resource demand exclusively with secondary resources (for example, recycling of end-of-life products) a circular economy with closed loops. Is such a scenario realistic? What factors could limit the implementation of a circular economy? To what extent are we going to be dependent on primary resources also in the future? In order to answer these questions, it is essential to understand how resources are used in society, what roles they play to satisfy societys needs, and how they can be recovered at the end of their useful lifetime as products. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how we can use systems analysis to describe the fate of materials in society (the socio-economic metabolism) and to develop scenarios and forecasts for the future use of primary and secondary resources. Of particular relevance are the in-use stocks (for example, buildings, infrastructures, or vehicles, which constitute the built environment): as long as the in-use stocks are growing, for example due to urbanization, recycling cannot meet the resource demand, however, as these stocks are ageing, more products reach the end of their lives and become available for recycling. The development of the built environment is therefore setting important boundary conditions for replacing primary with secondary resources. The implementation of the Circular Economy strategy is further limited by the high costs associated with the recovery of certain end-of-life products or the separation of metals contained in them. Due to these reasons, mining of the geosphere will also in the future play an important role in satisfying societal needs, however, there is a growing potential to replace traditional mining with urban mining.
https://www.munich-geocenter.org/events/seminars/frontiers-in-earth-sciences-18/is-the-circular-economy-strategy-leading-to-an-end
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Is the Circular Economy strategy leading to an end of traditional mining?
Abstract
The circular economy strategy of the EU aims to close the loop of materials through re-use and recycling. Re-use and recycling have several ecological benefits: they generally reduce primary resource consumption, landfilling of waste, as well as energy consumption and emissions related to primary production of materials. One could imagine an economy which is becoming entirely independent from primary resources (mining of the geosphere) by satisfying its resource demand exclusively with secondary resources (for example, recycling of end-of-life products) a circular economy with closed loops. Is such a scenario realistic? What factors could limit the implementation of a circular economy? To what extent are we going to be dependent on primary resources also in the future?
In order to answer these questions, it is essential to understand how resources are used in society, what roles they play to satisfy societys needs, and how they can be recovered at the end of their useful lifetime as products. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how we can use systems analysis to describe the fate of materials in society (the socio-economic metabolism) and to develop scenarios and forecasts for the future use of primary and secondary resources. Of particular relevance are the in-use stocks (for example, buildings, infrastructures, or vehicles, which constitute the built environment): as long as the in-use stocks are growing, for example due to urbanization, recycling cannot meet the resource demand, however, as these stocks are ageing, more products reach the end of their lives and become available for recycling. The development of the built environment is therefore setting important boundary conditions for replacing primary with secondary resources. The implementation of the Circular Economy strategy is further limited by the high costs associated with the recovery of certain end-of-life products or the separation of metals contained in them. Due to these reasons, mining of the geosphere will also in the future play an important role in satisfying societal needs, however, there is a growing potential to replace traditional mining with urban mining.
