The contemporary European zinc cycle: 1-year stocks and flows
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| Title: | The contemporary European zinc cycle: 1-year stocks and flows |
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| Authors: | Spatari, S.1 sabrina.spatari@utoronto.ca, Bertram, M.1,2, Fuse, K.1, Graedel, T.E.1, Shelov, Eric1 |
| Source: | Resources, Conservation & Recycling. Sep2003, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p137. 24p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Zinc, *Waste management, Resource management, Metal refining |
| Abstract: | A regional material stock and flow (STAF) model was constructed to track the pathway of zinc in the early 1990s in selected western European countries. This paper traces the major flows of zinc from ore, to product, to potential secondary resource as it moves through the European economy over 1 year. Successive mass balance estimations were used to determine zinc flows, including the amount of metal that enters stocks in waste reservoirs and products. A resource-specific model and database were used to allocate zinc flows and record temporal and spatial boundary data and data quality criteria. The model shows that for primary zinc, as for other non-ferrous metals, most is imported as concentrate from North and South America and Oceania, and is smelted in Europe to refined metal. It is estimated that 5 kg zinc per person enters use annually in the European economy; this is partly balanced by a flow to waste management of about 2 kg per capita. The largest flows of zinc in discard streams are in construction and demolition debris and in end-of-life vehicles. Only about 34% of the discarded zinc is recycled. While zinc''s residence time can be high for many of its applications in the building and construction sector, since the majority of zinc is used as an anti-corrosion coating, there are dissipative losses occurring during the lifetime of products and infrastructure containing zinc. This study and others suggest that zinc losses to the environment are significant in magnitude, and their impacts should be evaluated over time and at various spatial scales. [Copyright &y& Elsevier] |
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| Database: | GreenFILE |
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