Non Ferrous Metals Recycling : some Economic, Technical and
Environmental Aspects of Aluminium and Lead Market in Brazil
By Heloisa V. de Medina
On recent years, pollution prevention, waste minimization, materials recovery and endof-life products recycling has been a growing subject of interest. Strictly speaking
mineral industry, materials producers and materials based manufactures are at the core
of these concerns. Worldwide new materials and new products were developed to be
recycled. Furthermore designing activities were enlarged to cope with the principle of
life-cycle product management. However according to life cycle principle recyclability
does not assure sustainability. On this sense recycling metals protecting the environment
is an example of how difficult it can be. For instance clean recycling processes avoiding
emissions and water contamination by heavy metals and other toxic elements is an everpresent challenge.
Besides the economic viability of the recycling processes is also a key issue for the
emerging recycling industries that are often linked to complex waste streams from civil
construction, and end of life products (ELP). For ELP the major contribution comes
from the automobile industry and electric and electronics which are the largest materials
intensive industrial sectors. The economic viability of recycling for such ELP depends
on materials separation. So to get the best methods on separation is nowadays the most
important challenger for materials science and engineering. And this is specially true for
metals and their alloys since they often are contaminated by chemical treatments and
assembly processes such as joining techniques, painting etc... In short "Virtually all of
the materials in today's automobile can technically be recycled the challenge facing
engineers is making recycling process economical"(Coulter and al.1998). And we could
add that they also have to search how to do it with no additional environmental impacts.
In the last decade recyclability improvements has been motivated by many different
reasons among then we can point out :
1. more restrict environmental legislation
2. unstable supply of natural resources particularly some rare metals
3. reducing the developed countries dependence on strategic metals
4. economic advantages of secondary metals production: lower energy consumption,
global emissions and production costs.
5. emergence of new recycling technologies
6. establishment of ELP collecting systems (aluminum can, automotive batteries, tires )
7. designing for environment and designing for recycling practices
8. development of new and recyclable materials and products
9. economic opportunity in terms of income and jobs for the less developing countries
We intent to present here an overview of the non-ferrous metals recycling in Brazil
illustrated by some examples on the in two main axes:
1. Market pulled materials such as aluminum that have impressive economic
advantages and one of the greatest world market in Brazil.
2. Materials that claim for new and clean technologies and sound recycling process
management avoiding extra environmental impacts such as lead.
For these materials and their recovery and recycling processes we are going to present a
Brazilian market overview. Recycling technologies will also be highlighted. An
example of best available practices for recovery lead from automotive batteries will be
provided. Finally we will point out the opportunities and recommendations for Brazil.
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