NEWS

26.05.11
ICMM welcomes new UNEP report on metals recycling

Smarter product designs and better waste management schemes could help boost metals recycling around the world, according to a new UNEP report presented this morning at the London Metal Exchange and this afternoon in Brussels as part of the Green Week Conference 2011.

ICMM’s John Atherton, who was part of the report’s peer review group, welcomed its findings. “We hope this report encourages policy makers and product designers to adopt life cycle thinking when planning for materials recycling,” he said.

Recycling Rates of Metals: A Status Report marks the first attempt to gather accurate and consistent information about the extent to which metals are collected, processed and reused. It found that recycling rates remain discouragingly low despite significant country and regional efforts to promote the reuse of metals.

“In theory, metals can be used over and over again,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP’s Executive Director. “Raising levels of recycling world-wide can therefore contribute to a transition to a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy while assisting to generate ‘green jobs’.”

However, less than one third of some 60 metals studied had an end-of-life recycling rate above 50%, while over half the elements had a recycling rate below 1% despite often being crucial to clean air technologies.

Lead was the best performer, with close to 80% of products – mainly batteries – being recycled. Similarly, more than half of iron and steel components are recycled, largely because they are easy to remove and process.

Platinum, gold, silver and most other precious metals are also recycled, because of their high value. But there is virtually no recycling of the remaining metals, including lithium -- required for batteries in electric vehicles. Collection systems were identified as the weakest link in the recycling chain.

“Increasingly, designers are combining metals into sophisticated alloys, or joining them in complex ways, to create products that perform better or cut costs,” said Dr Thomas Graedel, a professor of industrial ecology at Yale University and one of the report’s eight authors. “Unfortunately, while they’re improving products, they’re paying too little attention to the ease and cost of recovering the components. This report hopes to aid designers and producers incorporate recycling rates into their work.”

Also present at the launch were Chris Evans, Head of Business Development, London Metal Exchange (LME) and Nick Nuttal, UNEP Spokesman.v

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK

Principle 06:

Seek continual improvement of our environmental performance.

Principle 08:

Facilitate and encourage responsible product design, use, re-use, recycling and disposal of our products.

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