Waste Input-Output Analysis of the Dynamic Path of the Use and Dissipation of Metal Resources and the Associated GHG Emissions

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Recycling is vital for sustainable management of metal resources. While closed-loop recycling is desirable, open loop recycling is more common due to the mixing of different metal-species in the end of life process. This is associated with losses in quality, and additional environmental burdens such as GHG emissions, as well. A tool was developed that makes possible to estimate the environmental burdens associated with these quality losses. Application to ferrous materials used in passenger cars showed the significance of improvement in end-of-life separation technologies in mitigating the nation-wide GHG emissions. Furthermore, a mathematical model was developed that is capable of tracing the fate of materials over time across products under explicit consideration of products lives, recovery, refining, and use.