Potential of urban mine

Abstract

The potential of urban mining is getting greater. From the global view, the potential of urban mining, namely the estimated amount of on-surface stock which has been mine form the geo-sphere into the techno-sphere, is comparative to natural resource which is still in geo-sphere as underground stock. However, practical recycling of metals are still in the stage of developing, and depending on the country. As an example, ultimate potential of urban mine in Japan was estimated. The differences between input of each metal contents and output of it were considered to be accumulated. I/O method was combined to estimate the metal contents in exported products. Japan, which is considered a typical exporter of materials, has great potential of urban mining which comes from domestic demand of products. However, real activity of development of urban mine, namely recycling, is not so effective, especially for minor metals which sometime called rare metals from the viewpoint of the importance in industries. We need to develop the technology and system for urban mining, just now.