Mistra REES researchers Hampus André and Maria Ljunggren have a new article in the journal of Resources, Conservation and Recycling with the title “Towards comprehensive assessment of mineral resource availability? Complementary roles of life cycle, life cycle sustainability and criticality assessments”

A diversity of metals is used in today’s products – from smart phones and laptops to electric vehicles and solar panels. Because of this, there is a growing concern about metals becoming scarce, both for current and future generations. More circular solutions such as increased technical lifetime, repair and recycling could reduce metals scarcity. But which of all metals to prioritize when designing such solutions? In the near future, the risk of scarcity depends on, for example, geopolitics, while, in a longer time perspective, it is rather geological occurrence. It is thus very different metals that have the greatest risk of scarcity in each perspective. Hampus André and Maria Ljunggren compares the principles of prioritization of metals in life cycle assessments, criticality assessments and life cycle sustainability assessments in a scientific article here. They suggests how the methods can be used in a complementary way when designing circular solutions for metal-diverse products.

Read the full text here.