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Although there is no Physical Short‐Term Scarcity of Phosphorus, its Resource Efficiency Should be Improved
Author(s) -
Scholz Roland W.,
Wellmer FriedrichWilhelm
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1111/jiec.12750
Subject(s) - scarcity , resource scarcity , natural resource economics , industrial ecology , promotion (chess) , resource (disambiguation) , term (time) , phosphorus , environmental economics , business , economics , sustainability , law , ecology , market economy , computer science , political science , metallurgy , computer network , physics , materials science , quantum mechanics , politics , biology
Summary The German government has adopted a law that requires sewage plants to go beyond the recovery of phosphorus from wastewater and to promote recycling. We argue that there is no physical global short‐ or mid‐term phosphorus scarcity. However, we also argue that there are legitimate reasons for policies such as those of Germany, including: precaution as a way to ensure future generations’ long‐term supply security, promotion of technologies for closed‐loop economics in a promising stage of technology development, and decrease in the current supply risk with a new resource pool.