Impact assessment for metals - a comparative study of total environmental impacts between primary metals and secondary metals

One of the most important themes to promote Eco-design is the utilization of recycled materials. But little is known about the environmental information on total impacts from production of recycled materials in Japan. In recent years, many studies concerning the methodologies of impact assessment have discussed to show one single index about total environmental impacts. The question of how to include `resource depletion' as a safeguard subject is still open. We have suggested a methodology that provides us a total indicator based on Japanese environmental problems and resource consumption. In this paper a research program for investigating the environmental impacts of production metals in Japan is described. Moreover, the differences of environmental impacts between primary metals and secondary metals were discussed as a case study.