Urban Mining Recovers Valuable Resources From City Waste

The world is a wonderful place, full of resources that people can use to make their lives better. From the fresh water in streams and lakes, to precious metals from under the earth, there are so many things to be grateful for.

However, resources, both natural and man-made are not infinite. That is why urban mining is so exciting. Urban mining, according to Discovery Alert, is the idea that cities, human habitats, and construction material can be used as a source of resources. Happily,  it is a growing trend.

A Huge Demand for Materials
According to the Leonard platform, the OECD reports that the demand for materials will rise from 89 billion tons in 2019 to 167 billion tons in 2060. This is a huge increase. What’s more, the estimates for the rise in demand for critical metals is even more extreme — with some of them increasing by a whopping 60 percent.

That’s where urban mining comes in. Urban mining is predicted to bring in over 50 million metric tons of metal annually, cutting the need for virgin resource extraction (that is to say, material that has not been used before) by 15 percent, explained Discovery Alert.

Some of the materials that can be extracted via the urban mining of electronic materials are, gold, silver, copper, and rare earth metals such as platinum and palladium, among others. In addition, building materials can be mined for steel, aluminum, more copper, and concrete and its aggregates. Landfills are great sources of pre-recycling metal deposits, combustible elements of materials that can be used to create energy, and elements of materials that can be used in construction.

As an example, reported Euro News, the old cellphone you have lying around in your drawer actually has little bits of lithium, cobalt, and other rare materials in it. And with 700 million old phones in Europe alone, that comes to a lot of lithium and cobalt that can be used again and does not have to be extracted from the earth.

Advantages Abound
The advantages of urban mining are many, according to Discovery Alert. Firstly, it can help countries and economies reduce the vulnerabilities that come with being dependent on traditional resource mining. Many of the countries that produce the metals and other resources can be politically unstable, and hence accessibility to them can be unstable as well. Additionally, urban mining shortens the supply chain by localizing material recovery. It also creates a buffer in terms of fluctuating prices, and provides a domestic market for critical materials.

But the most important advantages of urban mining are its environmental advantages. It prevents the habitat destruction and biodiversity loss that comes with traditional mining as well as the toxic leaching of electronic waste into landfills. It also saves on the intense water consumption that is inherent in mining for metals. Finally, for extracting aluminum at least, it reduces energy consumption by 85 to 95 percent.

Anytime the world can move closer to creating a circular economy, the environment wins. Oftentimes, the economy wins as well. So one could say that creating a robust urban mining strategy is a win-win for the earth and all its living beings.