Accounting for Resources, 2: The Life Cycle of Materials

by Robert U. Ayres, Leslie W. Ayres

This companion to Accounting for Resources, 1 tracks the life cycle of specific elements, such as chlorine and heavy metals, in order to estimate the generation and dissipative losses of material wastes. The book begins with a succinct review of the life-cycle analysis methodology and evaluates some of its weaknesses in estimating the generation of waste. The authors propose a new quantitative measure of the potential for environmental harm of waste materials. They include case studies to add weight to their proposal. Four horizontal life-cycle case studies are included; one for chlorine and chlorine chemicals; one for mercury; one for arsenic and cadmium; and the other for copper, lead and zinc. The book also includes a longitudinal study of heavy metals use and dissipation, during the period 1880-1980 with reference to the Hudson-Raritan basin. The book concludes with an overview, including some recommendations for future research and for policy changes with respect to governmental statistical data collection and organization.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Robert U Ayres is an American physicist and economist who went to the University of Chicago hoping to study with Fermi, but wrote his doctoral thesis at King’s College London. He has written or co-authored some twenty books and two hundred scholarly papers in a long career in the United States and Europe. He is an emeritus professor based in Paris. He has had a 40-year interest in the Shakespeare authorship.