Urban Mining Explained
Urban Mining… toward Circular Economy
What Is Urban Mining and How Does It Work?
The process of urban mining involves the reclamation of raw materials present in waste products that are sent to landfills.
Conceptually, the process perceives waste as a vital resource, making use of anthropogenic – as opposed to geological – stocks to cater to the manufacturing demands.
Even after repeated cycles of reuse, repair and remanufacturing, every product eventually reaches the end of its useful life. At this point, the discarded product becomes a potential source of raw materials able to cycle back into the economy, either immediately (recycling) or later through recovered from stockpiles or landfills. This is where Urban Mining comes in.
Even though urban mining, commonly, is about recovering waste metals, the term is used for the monetization and recovery of any materials present in the waste streams, including:
- Demolition and construction waste: recovering materials such as metals, rubber, card, paper, and wood.
- Solid municipal waste: General recovery, consisting of anything ranging from the re-direction of plastics and metals, to composting for commercial/resale purposes.
- Tires: Particularly, the recovery of metal and rubber from tires or other products made using rubber.
Urban mining has been strongly focused on e-waste, especially since electronic items make use of a wide variety of recoverable and recyclable metals, including a number of precious metals like palladium, silver, and gold.
In 2019, the USA produced 7 million tons of e-waste, 15% of which was recycled. Currently, 25 states in the USA have laws pertaining to e-waste recycling.
Why is Urban Mining critical?
There are several forces that are influencing the global enthusiasm for urban mining:
1) The era of cheap and abundant raw materials is over:
Perhaps the simplest explanation behind the increasing support for urban mining is that our resource reserves are close to exhaustion. In the not-so-distant future, it will be almost impossible for us to extract raw materials in an easy and inexpensive manner – not to mention that it is becoming increasingly difficult to extract whatever raw material reserves we still have. In addition, reusing metals from already-manufactured goods is far more environmentally-friendly than extracting ores directly from the ground.
2) Recuperating raw materials through e-waste is a potentially cost-effective process:
For so many years, e-waste was treated as exactly that – waste. It was dumped and forgotten about. However, as organizations and countries wake up to the tremendous potential of urban mining, this is about to change – and rightly so. According to studies, electronic and electrical waste have a concentration of important minerals and metals, that is 50 times higher than that of ores that are extracted through mines. For instance, dismantling a ton of mobile phones will be sufficient to extract close to 300 grams of gold.
Besides, recycling processes have become a lot more cost efficient over the last few years. Similar to how it is better to use solar energy (instead of fossil fuels) to generate electricity, extracting metals through urban mining is considerably cheaper than relying on classic mining. Today, recycling requires considerably more energy compared to the energy demands of primary production.
3) There are still numerous appliances that are yet to be recovered:
Australia, for example, has approximately 23 million mobile phones primed for recovery. Africa, meanwhile, sees around a billion phones being discarded every year. On a global scale, approximately 50 million tons worth of electronic and electrical waste can be recuperated.
Circular Economy
What Is Circular Economy?
The Circular Economy concept stands in contrast to the traditionally more “linear” consumption pattern of “take- make-dispose” (Ellen McArthur Foundation).
A more Circular Economy aims to keep the value of products and the materials they contain for as long as possible in the economy and to minimize waste generation.
The individual elements of the Circular Economy are themselves not new. These include but are not limited to product design emphasizing reuse & repair, different energy and resource efficiency measures, innovative business models and end-of-life product recycling.
This means that, on the one hand, a circular economy focuses on the reduction of waste - biodegradable waste is composted, while non-biodegradable or transformed waste is reused, remanufactured, and, ultimately, recycled.
On the other hand, such an economy also emphasizes reducing the use of chemical substances – an approach that helps preserve and regenerate our natural systems – and relying more on renewable energy sources.
At the very heart of a circular economy resides the principle that there are no such things as waste. Hence, in order to design out any ‘waste’ materials, the products are manufactured for durability (high-quality materials are used to manufacture these products) and are created in a way that will allow for reuse and disassembly – this makes it easier to transform or renew the products.
What Can Corporations and Individuals Do to Make It More Feasible?
There are two key ways in which we can make a circular economy more feasible:
1) Reduced Consumption:
The circular economy revolves around optimal resource consumption and, the fact is, too many people in this world consume far too many resources. During the 20th century, resource consumption went up by twice as much as the global population. Considering the fact that the people living in the richest countries consume ten times as many resources as those living in poor countries, there is a dire need for balancing the allocation and consumption of resources.
In many parts of the world, it is crucial to encourage the right behavior, for example, around food waste, plastics, and fast fashion.
Reducing the use of plastic bags seems to be a common agenda throughout the world, with 127 countries introducing at least some form of tax or ban in this regard. Kenya has some of the strongest policies against plastic bags – after the introduction of a ban in 2017, approximately 80% of the Kenyan population stopped using plastic bags designed for single use.
2) Improved Consumption:
As mentioned, the circular economy is not just about lower consumption – it is also about optimal consumption. As consumers, this could mean purchasing products that have been manufactured using sustainable methods, or those that are recyclable. It could also mean altering our consumption habits – moving towards a more natural, plant-based diet, for instance.
Thankfully, consumer awareness, with regards to sustainability, is seeing a consistent global rise. More and more consumers are expecting organizations to implement the right approaches, methods, practices, and processes.
Improved consumption could also mean steering clear of purchases, and focusing more on sharing platforms and other circular models. Considering that an average car is only on the move for around 5% of its useful life, and that a power drill is not even used for a total of 15 minutes throughout its life, it is not hard to see how platform-sharing can help reduce the consumption of materials.
Streaming services like Netflix are good examples of how we can optimize our consumption without necessarily compromising or sacrificing. Over the last 10-15 years, we have seen a welcome reduction in the consumption and production of physical DVDs and CDs. While having a significant positive impact on the environment, this change has had absolutely no noticeable negative impact on our individual lives – the shift has allowed us to simply consume entertainment in a manner that is more sustainable.
Circular Economy & Urban Mining
Urban mining can be considered a particular strategy for the circular economy, which allows for the recovery of energy and materials from current stocks, including urban infrastructure.
Through recovery and recycling through landfills, urban mining can provide various economic, environmental, and humanitarian advantages, thereby helping to fulfill the purpose of the circular economy.
Urban Mining is an integral part of the Circular Economy and does not cover the whole concept. Processes like optimization of product design or the recycling of manufacturing scrap are part of the Circular Economy but are outside the Urban Mining concept.
