How recycling mitigates supply risks of critical raw materials: Extension of the geopolitical supply risk methodology applied to information and communication technologies in the European Union

The Geopolitical Supply Risk method, originally developed by Gemechu et al. (2016) and subsequently extended by Helbig et al. (2016a) and Cimprich et al. (2017, 2018), is aimed at incorporating supply risk assessment of “critical raw materials” as a complement to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) within life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). In this article, we further extend the method to consider the risk-mitigating potential of domestic recycling – thus advancing considerations of “circular economy” strategies for managing materials criticality. Our method captures two mechanisms through which domestic recycling can affect supply risk: a reduction in total imports (the “reduction effect”), and a potential redistribution of the import supply mix (the “redistribution effect”). We consider a range of outcomes from a best-case scenario (displacing imports from the riskiest trade partners) to a worst-case scenario (displacing imports from the least risky trade partners). Using our recently developed automated calculation tool, which significantly improves the practical applicability of the method by facilitating the otherwise burdensome computations required, we test and demonstrate our method on 13 raw materials used for information and communication technologies in the European Union. Thus, we test the notion that recycling mitigates supply risk. The reality is more complex. To maximize risk mitigation, recycling should ideally take place domestically, recycled material should be reinserted into the domestic economy, and the import supply mix should be considered, especially given that the redistribution effect sometimes exceeds the reduction effect

On the way to Dynamic Environmental Assessment

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Dynamic environmental assessment: scenarios, foresight and challenges

International audienceWith the environmental challenges in recent years, the assessment of impacts of human activity becomes a major issue for our societies. Nowadays it is well established that our activities can cause negative effects on the balance of the ecosystem. In order to asses our impacts, several tools and methodologies, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Carbon Footprint, etc. have been developed. Each of these approaches have some limitations with respect to their ability to meet the increasingly operational needs of stakeholders, experts and policy makers. For example, the lack of temporal dimension in LCA is one of the major limitation. Recent research suggested a dynamic approach taking into account the temporal. This paper aims to present a road-map for an integrated framework for an efficient assessment of dynamic LCA in the production sector of wheat

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Modeling cumulative effects in life cycle assessment: The case of fertilizer in wheat production contributing to the global warming potential

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Cartographie chimique par fluorescence X portable d’un atelier antique de production de laiton : exemple du Clos Paul (Charleville-Mézières, Ardennes)

International audienceLa fouille préventive du "Clos Paul" réalisée par la Cellule Archéologique du Conseil général des Ardennes (R.O. Jérôme Marian), a mis au jour en 2013 un atelier métallurgique daté de la fin du IIIème siècle de notre ère. La présence au décapage d'une structure de combustion et de nombreux fragments de creusets ont amené deux questions : Quelle métallurgie était pratiquée sur ce site ? Quels indices permettent de caractériser l'espace de travail, ses dimensions et ses liens avec les autres structures présentes sur le site ?Afin de répondre à ces questions, nous avons adopté une démarche alliant une grande souplesse de mise en œuvre, rapidité d'analyse et coût analytique modique