UNEP Report Released: Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles

Recently, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), released a new report produced by the International Resources Panel titled, Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles (2013). The 234-page report available here, discusses the following:

[t]his report, compiled by a group of international experts, focuses on the impact of metals on the environment as well as on their life cycle energy use. Currently, primary metals production is responsible for 7 – 8 % of the total global energy use as well as for severe local environmental impacts. The report suggests to apply best available techniques and to increase recycling of metals, which not only requires significantly less energy per kg metal produced than primary production but also helps decreasing the overall local impacts of mining. However, even if recycling rates are increased, rising global demand for many metals will remain a huge environmental challenge in the next decades worldwide.

Main issues of concern for policy-makers presented in this report:

• presently, the demand for metals is rising rapidly and this trend is expected to continue for the next decades
• a shift towards a renewable energy system implies the material, and especially metal, intensity of energy production will increase even faster
• in future, the energy intensity of the production of metals may increase as a result of mining lesser grade ores. For some metals, a trend of decreasing ore grades is visible, and for more it may become visible over the next decades

UNEP Report Released: Metal Recycling: Opportunities, Limits, Infrastructure

Recently, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), released a new report produced by the International Resources Panel titled, Metal Recycling: Opportunities, Limits, Infrastructure (2013). The 320-page report available here, discusses the following:

[d]ue to complex functionality, modern products contain complex mixes of almost any imaginable metal, material and compound. This growing complexity of modern products makes it difficult to extract and reuse valuable metals from waste products due to the laws of physics and related economics. For example, a mobile phone can contain more than 40 elements, including base metals such as copper and tin and precious and platinum-group metals such as silver, gold and palladium.

In order to boost historically low recycling rates, a global move from a Material-Centric to a Product-Centric approach, in which recycling targets specific components of a product and their complexity at its End of Life (EoL) and devises ways to separate and recover them, is essential. Optimizing the recycling of EoL products can avoid losses in efficiency throughout the chain of recycling. The global mainstreaming of such a Product-Centric view will be a remarkable step towards efficient recycling systems, resource efficiency and a Green Economy

Product-Centric recycling is discussed in this report by acknowledged experts. This approach is considered to be an essential enabler of resource efficiency by increasing recycling rates. This report provides a techno-economic, product design and physics basis to address the challenges of recycling increasingly complex products in the 21st century.

 

American Chemistry Council Recycling Reports Released

Recently, the American Chemistry Council, a trade organization "representing companies engaged in the business of chemistry" released two reports discussing recycling of rigid plastics.  According to the press release,

[t]he “2011 National Postconsumer Non-Bottle Rigid Plastic Recycling Report” found that 61 percent of rigid plastics collected in the United States were recycled in the United States or Canada, a sharp increase from the slightly over one-third recycled in this region in 2007, when Moore Recycling began measuring rigid plastics collection.

This report also found that polypropylene and polyethylene plastics comprise the largest portion (70 percent) of postconsumer non-bottle rigid plastics collected in the United States with polypropylene constituting 39 percent of all rigid plastics recycling and high-density polyethylene constituting 31 percent.

Contributing to the recent surge in rigid plastics recycling has been a substantial increase in the number of communities that are now collecting many types of rigid plastics in addition to bottles. The new consumer access report, “Plastic Recycling Collection: National Reach Study, 2012 Update” found that more than 1,400 cities and 300 counties in the United States now collect all rigid plastic containers in addition to plastic bottles.

IMO GUIDELINES ON SHIP RECYCLING

IMO Guidelines on Ship Recycling
This convention (Resolution A.962(23) Adopted on 5 December 2003) adopted by the International Maritime Organization sets forth guidelines on the recycling of ships.

EPA - America Recycles Day - November 15th

Everyday Americans recycle their trash because they know it’s an important activity that can have a positive impact on the environment. But once a year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets aside November 15 to remind everyone that recycling plays a dramatic role in reducing pollution. It’s a great day to recommit to recycling, and to consider adding some additional recycling activities to our daily routines.

Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: Facts and Figures 2007

This Environmental Protection Agency Report describes the national municipal solid waste (MSW) stream based on data collected for 1960 through 2007. The historical perspective is useful for establishing trends in types of MSW generated and in the ways it is managed.

In the United States, we generated approximately 254 million tons of MSW in 2007— similar to the amount generated in 2006. Excluding composting, the amount of MSW recycled increased to 63.3 million tons, an increase of 1.9 million tons from 2006. This is a 3 percent increase in the tons recycled. The tons recovered for composting rose to 21.7 million tons in 2007, up from 20.8 million tons in 2006. The recovery rate for recycling (including composting) was 33.4 percent in 2007, up from 32.3 percent in 2006. (See Tables ES-1 and ES-2 and Figures ES-1 and ES-2.)

MSW generation in 2007 declined to 4.62 pounds per person per day. This is a decrease of 0.6 percent from 2006 to 2007. The recycling rate in 2007 was 1.54 pounds per person per day (an increase of 2.7 percent over 2006). Discards sent for combustion with energy recovery remained steady at 0.58 pounds per person per day. Discards sent to landfills after recycling and combustion with energy recovery declined to 2.50 pounds per person per day in 2007. This is a decrease of 2.7 percent from 2006 to 2007 (Table ES-3).

Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in The United States: Facts and Figures for 2007

This report by the Environmental Protection Agency reports that Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash and recycled and composted 85 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 33.4 percent recycling rate (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). On average, we recycled and composted 1.5 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.6 pounds per person per day.