Towards a More Sustainable Use of Scarce Metals: A Review of Intervention Options along the Metals Life Cycle

Research output: Journal contributionsScientific review articlesResearch

Authors

  • Patrick A. Wäger
  • Daniel J. Lang
  • Dominic Wittmer
  • Raimund Bleischwitz
  • Christian Hagelüken
In the past few decades, geochemically scarce metals have
become increasingly relevant for emerging technologies in
domains such as energy supply and storage, information and
communication, lighting or transportation, which are regarded as
cornerstones in the transition towards a sustainable post-fossil
society. Accordingly, the supply risks of scarce metals and possible
interventions towards their more sustainable use have been
subject to an intense debate in recent studies. In this article, we
integrate proposed intervention options into a generic life cycle
framework, taking into account issues related to knowledge
provision and to the institutional setting. As a result, we obtain
a landscape of intervention fields that will have to be further
specified to more specific intervention profiles for scarce metals
or metals families. The envisioned profiles are expected to have
the potential to reduce action contingency and to contribute to
meeting the sustainability claims often associated with emerging
technol ogies.
Original languageEnglish
JournalGAIA
Volume21
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)300 - 309
Number of pages10
ISSN0940-5550
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11.12.2012

    Research areas

  • Sustainability Science - Critical metals, Life cycle management, Non-renewable resources, Recovery, Resource efficiency, substitution

Documents

DOI