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Abstract
The material stocks in the anthroposphere are growing faster than ever due to urbanization and growing per capita use. Owing to the growing potential insecurity of raw material supply the evaluation of resources gains increasing attention. Despite growing utilization of anthropogenic deposits, ‘urban mining’ has not yet sufficiently been supported by specific exploration methods. An exploration method for anthropogenic deposits is proposed and described by application to the copper stocks of Switzerland. The method combines material flow analysis with a bottom‐up analysis of material stocks. The stock composition and temporal characteristics are analysed by surveys and literature analysis. The stock amounts to 269±31 kg capita−1 for the year 2000. The retrospective data are used as parameters to construct a dynamic stock model, which is calibrated by historical trade statistics. The potential for drafting scenarios is discussed. The stock situation in Switzerland is reviewed and compared with that of other regions.
Acknowledgements
The results were calculated during a PhD project of the research group of Regional Materials Management S+E at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag). We thank Peter Baccini for the scientific support as head of this PhD thesis. Further thanks are expressed to Hans‐Peter Bader and Ruth Scheidegger for data modelling advice.