Copper Recycling Flow Model for the United States Economy: Impact of Scrap Quality on Potential Energy Benefit

Is recycling a means for meeting the increasing copper demand in the face of declining ore grades? To date, research to address this question has generally focused on the quantity, not the quality of copper scrap. Here, the waste inputoutput impact assessment (WIO-IA) model integrates information on United States (US) economy-wide material flow, various recycling indicators, and the impact of material production from diverse sources to represent the quantity and quality of copper flows throughout the lifecycle. This approach enables assessment of recycling performance against environmental impact indicators. If all potentially recyclable copper scrap was recycled, energy consumption associated with copper production would decrease by 15% with alloy scrap as the largest contributor. Further energy benefits from increased recycling are limited by the lower quality of the scrap yet to be recycled. Improving the yield ratio of final products and the grade of diverse consumer product scrap could help increase copper circularity and decrease energy consumption. Policy makers should address the importance of a portfolio of material efficiency strategies like improved utilization of copper products and lifetime extension in addition to encouraging the demand for recycled copper.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the impact of recycling copper scrap on the environment, finding that increasing recycling can lead to decreased energy consumption in copper production. However, the lower quality of unrecovered scrap limits further energy benefits from increased recycling. Improving yield ratios of final products and the grade of scrap can help increase copper circularity and decrease energy consumption.