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Many actions are underway at global, national, and local levels to increase plastics circularity. However, studies evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts of such a transition are lacking at regional levels in the United States. In this work, the existing polyethylene terephthalate and polyolefin plastics supply chains in Michigan were compared to a potential future ('NextCycle') scenario that looks at increasing Michigan's overall recycling rate to 45%. Material flow analysis data was combined with environmental and socio-economic metrics to evaluate the sustainability of these supply chains for the modeled scenarios. Overall, the NextCycle scenario for these supply chains achieved a net 14% and 34% savings of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy impacts, when compared with their respective baseline values. Additionally, the NextCycle scenario showed a net gain in employment and wages, however, it showed a net loss of revenue generation outside of Michigan due to the avoided use of virgin resins in Michigan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc is a key metal of industrial society that saw an unprecedented growth of its use between 2000 and 2010, largely driven by demand in China. Nonetheless, a contemporary understanding of multi-level stocks and flows of zinc is lacking. This paper presents the cycles of relevant countries, eight world regions, and the globe for 2010, relying on material flow analysis (MFA) for results that have the potential to inform policy makers and future research. We estimate the global zinc end-of-life recycling rate at 33%, which helps achieve a 27% of fabricated zinc coming from secondary sources. Most losses occur in waste management, most of it in the end use sectors construction and transportation. Increasing collection rates in these two sectors should be a priority for closing the zinc cycle. China dominates the global anthropogenic zinc cycle, and relies on primary zinc from Latin America and the Caribbean and Oceania to support its zinc demand. Government and industry in Europe and North America should anticipate shifts in exports of their zinc-containing scrap due to the growing availability of Chinese end-of-life zinc. Further research combining this study with scenario analysis could provide the knowledge base to answer questions related to this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The United States used 35.5 TG of plastics in 2015. • End-of-life plastic recycling was only 6.2%. • 77% of plastic waste was landfilled. • The circularity of plastics is still very far from realization. Given increasing concerns for the marine environment and human health, as well as trade restrictions from Asian countries, plastics have become a great challenge for the United States. This study addresses the seven commonly used plastics: low-density polyethylene/linear low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and other plastics. Material flows of the seven polymers were tracked from production into fabrication, manufacturing, flow into use, waste management, and recycling in the United States in 2015. Low- and high-density polyethylene and polypropylene were found to be the largest in both production and product manufacture. More than 88% of the plastics went into three end-use sectors: Packaging, Consumer and Institutional Products , and Building and Construction. In-use lifetimes across the plastics are generally short. Virgin plastics were mainly exported, while intermediate plastic products were largely imported. The actual end-of-life recycling rate of the plastics as a group was no more than 6.2%, with PET and the polyethylene family the most recycled. The high yearly plastic throughput and low recycling rate pose a serious challenge to the sustainability goals of the United States and is in stark contrast to the vision of a circular economy of plastics. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past century lithium went from being a minor metal with very limited application to being one of the core elements for the electrification revolution of the automotive sector. In spite of, or perhaps because of its strategic importance in many industrial fields, lithium extraction and trade has historically been underreported. This research aims to provide a clear analysis and data for lithium extraction and trade in the United States, which was, until a few decades ago, both the largest lithium producer and end-user in the world. The analysis covers the period 1910–2016, and reports lithium flows for the mining, chemical, and end-use sectors. The data show that lithium extraction in the United States peaked in 1974 (5.0 Gg), decreasing to 1.1 Gg by 2016, and that U.S. trade of lithium ores and brines is nearly non-existent. In the chemical sector, domestic use has remained relatively constant since the 1950′s (2.3 Gg), while exports have been significant since the 1980′s (1.8 Gg year⁻1 on average). Imports became of critical importance in 1998, with the closure of the last domestic lithium mine. The end-use sector has grown over time, reaching 6.5 Gg in 2016, and is now dominated by lithium used in batteries (2.8 Gg). Except for batteries, there appears to be little potential for lithium recovery and reuse. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]