• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.63-69
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• 2021

Supply deficit of lead commodities and environmental pollution can be simultaneously resolved through the recovery and recycling of waste lead. The recent recovery of lead through recycling of the lead battery waste is a positive development. To maximize the effect of lead recovery and recycling in the future, the updated status of the lead material flow should be recognized. However, such an analysis at the preliminary stages may be cumbersome owing to the complexity and diversity of emission sources and material streams. At this stage, a preliminary screening by domestic lead flow using public information should be feasible. Therefore, in this study, using the data from the UN Comtrade and domestic PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) databases, the amounts of lead import, emission, and transfer were identified and cross-checked with the domestic lead flow described in the National Material Flow Analysis database. The lead flow for major categories such as waste lead-acid batteries showed a rough consistency between the databases.