[Reasons for the changes in anthropogenic lead flows of China]

In recent years, accompanied by a series of comprehensive improvement actions on lead pollution, anthropogenic lead flows of China have somewhat changed; by exploring the reasons, some references can be provided for further improvement in resource utilization and environment quality. In this paper, based on the framework of lead flow analysis, the causes of changes in lead flows were identified and divided into scale factors and technical factors. Based on that and taking indices such as the quantities of lead production and recovered lead scraps, and lead recycling rate and emission rates as the scale and technical indices, respectively, the reasons for the changes of lead flow in our country were analyzed from the aspects of consumption, trade, technology, management and so on. The results showed: the domestic consumption of lead products has been gro wing quickly at an average annual rate of 24.7%, which pulled the growth of domestic lead consumption; The growth of lead consumption further increased the growth of lead production at an average annual rate of 14.2%, which finally pulled the growth of domestic lead ore resource consumption, lead concentrates net imports and lead scraps recovering; The increases in domestic consumption ratio of final lead products promoted the improvement of the lead recycling rate; As national management was strengthened, most lead-enterprises with small scale and old-dated technologies were closed, meanwhile, some advanced technologies were encouraged to be employed, thus the general resource utilization rate was improved and environmental lead emissions rate was reduced.