Reaching A Circular Metal-Use Economy

An important requirement needed for the continuing welfare and benefit of our global community is the availability of metals.  So, governmental regulations and incentives need to include considerations related to metal availability and use, and availability and use that must be looked at from the perspective of a circular economy.  To help governments in these considerations, government decisionmakers should take advantage of work done by the United Nations in developing seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals” or SDGs (click here to read details about SDGs).

These goals pertain to much more than metal sustainability, e.g. goals dealing with poverty, hunger, health, education, climate, land use, and human development.  But some of the goals are especially relevant to metal use and therefor metal use considerations are needed to reach certain SDG goals.  For example, the following SDGs can easily be related to metal availability and use:

SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation.  Metal mining can include large amounts of water use, which often is badly polluted by the use.

SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy.  Metal use and availability are critical in many aspects of energy use and developing new energy sources.

SDG 9 – Industry Innovation and Infrastructure.  Metal use is a foundation in many industrial processes.

SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities.  Goals in this SDG are critical to sustainable use of metals, since so much of city development and infrastructure requires huge amounts of metal use.

SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.  Success here is essential to the development of a circular economy, which must include a circular use and availability of metals.

SDG 13 – Climate Action.  Metal use is critical in many technologies that hopefully will reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, a major cause of climate change.

Major objectives of such overview and analysis are governmental regulations and incentives include the following:

1.                   Smart city models requiring developments, infrastructures, regulations, etc., that promote a circular economy;

2.                  Regulatory codes that effect how people live in communities, so that people can have desired life styles that are consistent with a circular economy;

3.                  Governmental incentives for the development of technologies that promote a circular economy; and

4.                  Governments that recognize the need for a circular economy and equip themselves with the planning and other resources needed to obtain that circular economy.

So, yes, targets for resource use, such as metal resource use, should be incorporated in the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  

And, the chemical enterprise should be directly and actively involved in providing input to help develop a circular economy for metals.