Handbook of Recycling

Appendix 2

Thermodynamics 101

Patrick Wollants,     KU Leuven - Faculty of Engineering, Department Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (MTM), Kasteelpark Arenberg, Leuven, Belgium

A2.1. On the Consumption and Availability of Metals

It is hard to imagine today's life going on without the extensive use of a wide diversity of metals in all kinds of applications, very hard indeed. You could give it a try and tell me how. I do not expect an easy answer. The reason is not that living without using (much) metals would not be possible. History teaches us that our ancestors did. But also that knowledge of producing metals and using them in a variety of applications was fatally and undeniably linked to power and to some extent to welfare as well. How willing ...