Taneomi Harada

Dept. of Mineral Resources Engineering, School of Science & Engineering, Waseda University
(3-4-1, Ohkubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169 Japan)

Abstract

According to Spoel's report (1990), metals produced from ores amounted to below 25 million tons from the beginning of civilization until 1750; 10 million tons of metals from 1750 to 1800; 100 million tons from 1800 to 1850; 900 million tons from 1850 to 1900; 4 billion tons from 1900 to 1950; and 5.8 billion tons during the 1980's. In recent decades, however, a dramatic increase of consumption of metals, other materials and energy has resulted in exhaustion of metal resource reserves, and global environmental problems. One of the keys to solving these problems is resource recycling. In order to offer information concerned with recovery of metals from various wastes, in this paper, the author has reviewed the following: 1) The expected duration of reserves of metallic resources, 2) the relationship between social systems and metals, 3) separation and recovery technologies for metals.

Key words: metal recycling, resource recycling, metal recovery, waste treatment