Should We Mine the Landfills: An Industrial Stocks and Flows Proposal

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The historical reservoir for the materials used by our technological society has been virgin stocks (ore bodies, mineral deposits, and the like). For a variety of reasons, those stocks may become inadequate or unavailable at some times or places in the future. Other reservoirs exist, however, a principal one being products stored or discarded over the years by corporations and individuals. These latter reservoirs might become very important in the next few decades of rapid population growth and resource use, but we know little about their total abundance and the chemical and physical forms in which they exist. In this research, we will evaluate current and historical flows of specific materials (selected from copper, silver, zinc, cadmium, ABS polymer and construction timber), estimate the stocks available in different types of reservoirs, especially industrial and municipal landfills. To do so, we will draw largely on information now scattered across a number of data depositories and centers of excellence: mineralogical and geological records, economic data, industrial association publications, environmental records, and so on. Historical records should permit the assessment to be extended, at least approximately, to include the entire 20th century. The expectation is that there will be seen to be substantial utility in material stock and flow information and that a number of technological and policy actions may be guided by the results. In particular, it is anticipated that it will be most useful to evaluate non-virgin materials reservoirs as potential sources of industrial materials for the next millennium.