Aluminum in-use stocks in China: a bottom-up study

Characterization of the in-use stocks of a resource provides a perspective on the relationship between the amount of materials providing services and the state of development of a country or region. In this regard, we have performed what we believe to be the first aluminum in-use stock study for a developing country: China in 2000 and 2005. We found the in-use stocks to be 29 Tg Al (2000) and 49 Tg Al (2005), or 23 kg Al/capita (2000) and 37 kg Al/ capita (2005). These are lower limits because data were not available for all aluminum-containing products. The 2005 per-capita figure is roughly half that of the global average in-use aluminum stock, and about one-tenth that of highly developed countries such as Japan and the United States.