Improving eco‐efficiency can contribute to sustainable development. This article defines the societal services and environmental impacts of the lead‐acid battery (LAB) system and offers definitions of eco‐efficiency, resource efficiency, and environmental efficiency in the context of LAB systems. Based on the actual lead‐flow in the LAB system, we develop a model that considers changes in production, the time interval between production and disposal, direct linkages between the final product and the societal service it provides, and the fiscal year as the statistical period. From this model, equations for eco‐efficiency are derived and changes in eco‐efficiency are predicted.
The results show, not surprisingly, that increased lead recycling and reduced lead emissions will both improve ecoefficiency. The resource and environmental efficiencies for LAB in China are 119 and 131 kilowatt‐hour‐years per metric tonne (kWh. yr/t), respectively, versus a value for both of 15, 800 kWh. yr/t in Sweden. The difference results from a lower lead recycling rate (only 0.312 tonne/tonne, which means that nearly 70% of the old lead scrap is not recycled based on official statistics) and higher lead emissions (0.324 tonne/tonne, which means that nearly 33% of the lead inputs used in the LAB system were lost into the environment) in China. Further analysis shows that these problems result from inefficient management of lead scrap, poor quality lead ore, and an abundance of small‐scale lead‐related plants. Ways to improve eco‐efficiency are proposed.
The fl ows and stocks of seven important industrial metals were characterized for mainland China for several years in the dynamically changing decade of 1994-2004. One-year snapshot cycles are provided for chromium, nickel, and silver. For copper, zinc, lead, and iron, multipleyear cycles have been completed; they demonstrate that the fl ows of these metals into use in China doubled between 2000 and 2004. Although the Chinese per capita fl ows from production to disposal are mostly shown to be below the global average rate, they are increasing or are expected to increase dramatically. The metal resource effi ciency is evaluated for several indicators of material fl ow analysis; these metrics for China are also below the global average values. The research quantitatively illustrates that China's metal cycles may pose signifi cant resource and environmental challenges in terms of their magnitudes and potential for growth.Key words Material fl ow analysis · China · Per capita metal fl ows · Metal effi ciency metrics J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (
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