TRANSACTION PAPER

 

Can we decrease the ecological footprint of base metal production by recycling?

 

 

D.R. Groot; P.C. Pistorius

University of Pretoria

 

 

---

SYNOPSIS

Sustainability and the environment are important and topical themes currently. There is a generally growing awareness of resource consumption, possible resource depletion, and the polluting effects of indiscriminate dumping at the end of the useful life of an item, as well as of the pollution caused by producing items and making them available to the end user. The issues are complex and interlinked. In order to improve understanding, it is important to obtain holistic and quantitative perspectives.
To help in quantification, concepts such as the ecological and carbon footprints have been defined and are in common use. This paper introduces the concept of a material footprint to help quantify the material resource usage in an item, in terms of globally available resources. It allows comparison of various items to one another in terms of their use of material resources. Thus the types of items available for recycling can be ranked to determine recycling priorities. The material footprint can also help in determining recycling priorities for the various materials in the items. Several examples are used as illustration. It is shown that recycling of printed circuit boards is especially worthwhile.
Printed circuit boards are complex and heterogeneous from a materials recycling perspective. The paper describes the complexities of recycling these boards, but also points out the benefits. An overview is given of currently available metallurgical technologies for such recycling. It is shown that in these processes there are many factors that affect the environment.
It thus remains difficult to determine the total impact of recycling on the environment holistically. Possibly some benefits are to be gained in the Southern African context by better integration between secondary material processors and primary metal producers.

---

 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

References

BALE, C.W., CHARTRAND, P., DEGTEROV, S.A., ERIKSSON, G., HACK, K., BEN MAHFOUD, R., MELANÇON, J., PELTON, A.D., and PETERSEN, S. FactSage Thermochemical Software and Databases. Calphad, vol. 26, 2002. pp. 189-228.         [ Links ]

BCS, INCORPORATED. Energy and environmental profile of the U.S. mining industry. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 2002.         [ Links ]

BOATMAN, E.S., COVERT, D., KALMAN, D., LUCHTEL, D., and OMENN G.S. Physical, morphological and chemical studies of dusts derived from the machining of composite-epoxy materials. Environmental Research, vol. 45, 2nd edn., 1988. pp. 242-255.         [ Links ]

BONDOLFI, A. The Green e-Waste channel: model for a reuse and recycling system of electronic waste in South Africa. Master Thesis, University of Lausanne. 2007.         [ Links ]

BROADHURST, J.L., PETRIE, J.G., and VON BLOTTNITZ, H. Understanding element distribution during primary metal production. Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy, vol. 116, 2007. pp. 1-16.         [ Links ]

CES SELECTOR SOFTWARE. Version 4.6.1. Granta Design Ltd., Cambridge, UK 2006.         [ Links ]

COX, M. and REINHARDT, H. The use of solvent extraction in the recovery of waste. In Solvent Extraction Principles and Practice, 2nd edn., Marcel Dekker, NY 2004. pp. 609-649.         [ Links ]

D'SILVA, K., FERNANDES, A., and ROSE, M. Brominated organic micropollutants-igniting the flame retardant issue. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 34, 2004. pp. 141-207.         [ Links ]

European Union Directive 2002/96/EC. http://europa.eu.int/eurlex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_037/l_03720030213en00240038.pdf (Last accessed June 2007).         [ Links ]

eWaste Guide. http://www.ewaste.ch/valuable_materials_in_e_waste (Last accessed May 2007).         [ Links ]

Global Footprint Network. http://www.footprintnetwork.org (Last accessed May 2007) Access various national footprints.         [ Links ]

GOOSEY, M. and KELLNER, R. A Scoping Study. End-of-Life Printed Circuit Boards. http://www.intellectuk.org/content/view/775/84/#PCBs (Last accessed May 2007). 2002.         [ Links ]

GÖßLING-REISEMANN, S. Thermodynamics and Resource Consumption - the case of copper production and recycling. Proceedings of R'07 World Congress Recovery of Materials and Energy for Resource Efficiency, Davos, Switserland, September 2007.         [ Links ]

HARPER, E.M., JOHNSON, J., and GRAEDEL, T.E. Making Metals Count: Applications of Material Flow Analysis. Environmental Engineering Science, vol. 23, edn. 3, 2006. pp 493-506.         [ Links ]

HAYES, P. Process Principles in Minerals and Materials Production. Hayes Publishing Co, Sherwood, Australia. 1993. pp. 28-32.         [ Links ]

HSIEH, M.Y., GUO, Y.L., SHIAO, J.S., and SHEU H.M. Morphology of glass fibers in electronics workers with fibreglass dermatitis-a scanning electron microscope study. International Journal of Dermatology, vol. 40, no. 4, 2001. pp. 258-261.         [ Links ]

INTERNATIONAL IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. World crude steel production, 1950 to 2006. http://www.worldsteel.org (Last accessed January 2008).         [ Links ]

KELLOGG, H.H. Conservation and metallurgical process design. Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Section C: Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy, vol. 86, 1977. pp. C47-C57.         [ Links ]

KUROSE, K., OKUDA, T., NISHIJIMA, W., and OKADA, M. Heavy metals removal from automobile shredder residues (ASR). Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. B137, 2006. pp. 1618-1623.         [ Links ]

MONAGHAN, D.P. Ferrous scrap metal reclamation and the recycling industry-its value to the economy and the environment. Recycling of metalliferous materials conference proceedings, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Birmingham, England, 23 to 25 April 1990.         [ Links ]

PIRET, N.L. and CASTLE, J.F. Review of secondary zinc treatment process options. Recycling of metalliferous materials conference proceedings, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Birmingham, England, 23 to 25 April 1990.         [ Links ]

RAGHAVAN, V. Cu-Fe-S (Copper-Iron-Sulfur). Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion, vol. 25, 2004. pp. 450-454        [ Links ]

RAND REFINERY SMELTING. http://www.randrefinery.com/OurServices-Smelting.html (Last accessed June 2007).         [ Links ]

SODHI, M.S. and REIMER, B. Models for recycling electronics end-of-life products. OR Spektrum, vol. 23, 2001. pp. 97-115.         [ Links ]

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, OFFICE OF FOSSIL ENERGY. Market-based advanced power systems. Report DOE/FE0400. US Department of Energy, Washington. 1999.         [ Links ]

US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. Mineral Commodity Summaries. http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/ (Last accessed April 2007).         [ Links ]

VEHLOW, J., BERGFELDT, B., JAY, K., SEIFERT, H., WANKE, T., and MARK, F.E. Thermal treatment of electrical and electronic waste plastics. Waste Management & Research, vol. 18, 2000. pp. 131-140.         [ Links ]

WARCZOK, J., PERS, A., and SMIESZEK, Z. Processing of cable scrap in Poland. Recycling of metalliferous materials conference proceedings, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Birmingham, England, 23 to 25 April 1990.         [ Links ]

WEBER, R. and KUCH, B. Relevance of BFRs and thermal conditions on the formation pathways of brominated and brominated-chlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans. Environment International, vol. 29, 2003. pp. 699-710.         [ Links ]

WILLIAMS, J.A.S. A review of electronics demanufacturing processes. Resources Conservation and Recycling, vol. 47, 2006. pp. 195-208.         [ Links ]

Wikipedia. http://www.wikipedia.org Search terms used were: 'printed circuit board', 'integrated circuit' and 'electronic component'. Links from the results pages. (Last accessed May 2007).         [ Links ]

 

 

Paper received Jun 2007
Revised paper received Feb. 2008