Using Material Flow Analysis to Identifying Global and Regional Opportunities for Zinc Circularity

Abstract

Today's sustainable development challenges are increasingly complex. Circularity, climate change, criticality, and the availability of raw materials at national through global scales are among the most dominant. Material Flow Analysis (MFA) has traditionally been used by industry sectors to identify impact opportunities and challenges associated with recycling. While using MFA for optimizing recycling flows is useful, combining MFA with product carbon footprints and geological resources/reserves is an important and essential step in developing decarbonization roadmaps for industry sectors or understanding future availability and criticality of a metal. Building on existing approaches for zinc, this paper combines MFA with other resources to (1) develop a decarbonization roadmap for the global zinc industry, (2) review scenarios of disruptive changes in value chains, and (3) investigate interdependencies in metals ecosystems.