If you think that in this high tech era we no longer need to worry about metals like copper or iron, think again. Ed Conway has just published a book entitled “Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization.” The first one he lists is sand. That’s right, sand. We are using world wide about 35 pounds of sand every day for every person on the planet. In some parts of the world an illicit trade in sand has grown up. Sand is used in building bridges, dams, overpasses, roadways and beaches in New Jersey. Sand is the major ingredient in concrete.
The second on the list is salt, used in many chemical processes. Then comes iron. And oil. And copper. Finally there is lithium. An electric car battery contains almost 20 pounds of lithium.
Conway believes that we can do a better job of recycling. I have a barrel full of copper wire in my shed that I will sell to a scrap dealer later this year. You can’t recycle most of the oil we use, but we can reuse copper, lithium, and iron. We just aren’t doing a good job of that.
Salt we can get from the ocean. Sand may be a problem.
Information for this post is from a review from Elizabeth Kolbert (a wonderful environmental writer) in the New Yorker, (Oct. 30, 2023), pp. 20-23.
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