Links between primary (extracted) and secondary (recycled) mineral resources
Abstract
This paper applies a simple model to examine the links between primary (extracted) and secondary (recycled) raw materials. The model serves to illustrate that in a growth-based economy, the reliance on primary raw materials is inevitable, let alone because of the residence time of the material in the economy, which generates a delay between the total production of raw material (primary and secondary) and the material that enters the waste stream and therefore becomes available for recycling. An examination of the underlying model hypotheses highlights the questionable nature of the "fixed stock" paradigm, which is not consistent with either geological knowledge of metal concentrations, or the continuous improvement of ore-treatment process efficiencies.