ZINC AND SUSTAINABILITY
Energy consumption and control of air quality
It takes less energy to produce zinc from ore compared to the energy needed to make other non ferrous metals used in building applications (aluminium, copper, stainless steel). Also, significantly less energy is used to produce zinc when recycled zinc is used instead of zinc ore.
Furthermore, the energy required to transform metallic zinc into rolled zinc for building applications (2 MJ/kg) is low compared to that needed to transform other metals.
In the near future, progress in zinc recycling research and development will make it possible to replace ever increasing quantities of zinc ore with recycled zinc. This will contribute to a further reduction in total energy consumption.
Air quality control The VM ZINC® plants are also active in the fight against pollution by reducing emissions into the air and water. In order to reduce emissions of dust into the air, VM ZINC® invested A$1.3 million in 1994-1995 to reduce dust emission rates to 0.2 mg/m³ at its plants. This rate is well within the limits of less than 5mg/m3 required by the new regulations. Since 1986, VM ZINC® has invested about A$4.5 million to reduce emissions of zinc into the water and uses a water treatment plant.
