Abstract
Meeting the world's need for mineral raw materials poses numerous challenges in terms of social acceptability and emissions, as well as water and energy consumption, which is set to rise further as the metal content of mined deposits steadily declines. While there are no signs of resource scarcity, the deposits of the coming decades will be deep and hidden, or unconventional, and will require major investment.
Everything points to an accelerated transition to a circular economy, in which the notion of waste disappears, to be considered as a resource. The transition to a circular economy is based on the 3Rs principle: reduce (consumption of natural resources), reuse end-of-life components and recycle.
The recycling of metals offers major prospects for reducing demand for primary resources, particularly in the case of small metals, for which the current recycling rate from end-of-life products is generally less than 1%. Nevertheless, the complexity of the assemblies making up the technosphere (an electronic waste product can contain 40 to 60 elements and minerals) is far greater than that of any natural mineral.
In this field, as in others, there is no single solution for an ethical response to the challenges of the 21st century. Public policies and industrial players will have to act on a range of levers to meet technological challenges, rethink economic concepts and integrate the various dimensions of sustainable development.
