In several countries, the subsidies offered for
virgin materials extraction make it cheaper to dig up new minerals
than to recycle existing, above- ground supplies. Mining companies
have fought hard to maintain this status. In the United States, for
instance, the industry has staunchly opposed any reforms to the
1872 mining law—and has invested large amounts of money to
maintain this support. Between mid-1997 and mid- 2000, U.S. mining
interests contributed almost $21 million to political
campaigns.
Current materials systems are aligned along the
uneven playing field that favours miners and places recyclers at a
disadvantage. For instance, most smelters and refineries are not
set up to accept secondary sources of material. In Germany, the
government introduced aggressive laws in the 1990s to encourage
recycling—without first ensuring that materials markets could
absorb an avalanche of secondary materials, much of which ended up
languishing in warehouses.
Another constraint to recycling is that many
modern products are made of a complex set of alloys and materials,
which are not easy to separate out and reprocess. But this is
hardly insurmountable: products ranging from computers to cars are
being designed to be disassembled for repair, reuse, and,
ultimately, recycling. Mitsubishi makes a washing machine that can
be taken apart using just a screwdriver; Audi makes a 100- percent
recyclable car. To aid recycling, some manufacturers now put bar
codes on parts to identify the different materials.
Recognizing the value of scrap metals, auto
recyclers in the Netherlands recycle about 86 percent by weight of
discarded cars. Most cars there are taken apart and reprocessed to
reclaim materials in hubcaps, batteries, and other car parts, and
this is funded by a $130 disassembly fee that new car buyers pay.
Encouraged by the Dutch model, the European Union (EU) has proposed
a Scrap Car Directive, which requires manufacturers to take
responsibility for cars at the end of their useful lives. Under the
proposal, carmakers will have to recycle all recyclable parts of
the vehicle, and 85 percent of all materials by weight. The EU
proposal also requires manufacturers to discontinue use of heavy
metals such as cadmium, mercury, and lead in auto parts because of
the health risks they pose during mining, use, and disposal.
In a similar vein, in June 2000, the European
Commission passed a Directive on Waste from Electronics and
Electronic Equipment, which is slated to become European law in
early 2003. The directive calls for electronics manufacturers to
stop using heavy metals by 2006, and for producers to take
financial and physical responsibility for recycling, including
providing a place for households to return discarded equipment free
of charge. Still under negotiation are recycling and reuse targets
for producers. Currently, 90 percent of the EU's electronic
waste—from computers, televisions, stereos—ends up in
landfills. Many countries outside Europe, including Australia,
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, have introduced or proposed similar
laws requiring electronics firms to take back and recycle their
products.
Producing materials from secondary sources has
significantly smaller impacts than virgin sources would in terms of
energy use, toxic emissions, and occupational health
hazards—but it does not eliminate them entirely. In a
sustainable materials system, repair, reuse, and remanufacture are
the methods of first choice. Recognizing this, the Danish
government has banned aluminum cans in favour of reusable glass
bottles—nearly 100 percent of bottles there are returned and
reused.
Secondary materials options are labour-intensive
and have the potential to create many more jobs than mining. But
this may not be reassuring to skilled mine workers in places with
few alternative income sources. If we are to move to an economy
based on less virgin materials, mining, a key component will be
investment in transition plans to provide safety nets and
employment opportunities to workers and communities. The
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) has worked hard to promote
"just-transition" plans for workers from sectors such as chemicals,
pulp and paper, and mining, noting that "just- transition is an
essential part of environmental change." It has recommended that
displaced workers be retrained for high- paying, "green" jobs. The
CLC has highlighted the need for unions and governments to be
prepared for change: to anticipate that environmental imperatives
will—or should—determine the viability of certain
industries and jobs. Trade union federations elsewhere, such as the
AFL-CIO in the United States, and the European Trade Union
Congress, have also endorsed similar fair transition plans.
With mining jobs in decline around the world,
governments, firms, and unions have a tremendous opportunity to
create safer, more meaningful, ecologically sustainable employment
for these workers and the families they support. Following the
enormous layoffs of the 1990s, the South African Employment Bureau
and the National Union of Mine workers there developed transition
plans to retrain and employ former mine workers— some whom
have found new jobs in steel and paper recycling, for instance. In
the United States, recycling and remanufacturing employ more than a
million people— many more than its mines, which have about
220,000 workers.
Many towns around the world are looking away from
mining and toward more ecologically sustainable industries.
Chloride, Arizona, a former silver mining town in the United States
for instance, is looking toward to wind energy to reinvigorate its
economy. China has 4.3 million mine workers—almost a third of
the world's work force in mining— in nearly 400 mining towns.
The mines in some 80 percent of these towns have been largely
depleted, and about 100 nonferrous metal mines are expected to
close down in the next few years. Li Rongrong, the minister in
charge of the State Economic and Trade Commission, has urged these
moribund mining regions to expand their economies "in line with
sustainable development."
Even if we are able to reconfigure our materials
economy so that most of our resources come from secondary sources,
some mining will likely continue. And there are many immediate
opportunities for improving the way mines operate. For instance, it
makes sense to do away with some practices that are very damaging
and yield so little benefit— such as pouring cyanide over
tons of ore to produce a few kilograms of gold that are ultimately
used for ornamental purposes. Another practice ripe for change is
the dumping of tailings and other mine wastes into rivers and the
ocean.