A brief review of the recent advances in the field of ecomaterials in China is presented, giving opinions on the current activities and suggesting possible future courses of action. The past 10 years has seen the development of the concept of ecomaterials involving practical research and development of environmentally conscious materials, and the establishment of related systems including national programs and laws. It has been an important period for the development of materials science and the goal of creating a sustainable society in China. It has now become clear that ecomaterials, which exhibit high performance whilst being environmentally benign in their life cycle, are evolving from being only materials for end-of-pipe applications to include all materials being designed on the basis of life-cycle thinking.
1. Introduction
Materials are one of the basic founding blocks for the development of society and economy. For the production, manufacture, application, and disposal of materials, numerous energy and resources are consumed, and environment deterioration occurs as a result. To harmonize materials development with environmental protection, sustainable developmental ecomaterials or environmentally conscious materials, have been actively sought in recent years throughout the world [*1], [2] and [**3]. The main activities and schedules related to ecomaterials research and development in China are briefly introduced in this article.
In view of the extremely rapid industrial development in China, there is a great danger that mistakes made in the past by the West may be repeated in China. China is a large materials producer as well as a user [*4]. The principal Chinese raw materials output, including iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, cement, coal, glass and so on have been largest in the world over recent years. At the same time, the energy and resource consumption required is sharply increasing, much higher than the world average for GNP basis. This aggravates the resource and energy shortage and causes serious environmental pollution and ecological deterioration. Ecomaterials are not only in demand due to advanced materials development but also for materials industry by the global environment, social development, and human existence.
In recent years, research into ecomaterials has progressed in the fields of metallurgy, metals, non-metals, polymers, wood, and minerals, amongst others. Functional materials for environmental protection, energy-saving materials, materials supporting low-emission systems, and materials designed by means of LCA and selected for their lower environmental impact are the most important areas to concentrate research on when addressing the global environmental problems caused by materials technology. Since all countries see environmental measures as an important strategy to protect their own industry, ecomaterial and ecoproducts developed with related technologies have not only become the popular topics for the basic research, but also one of the most vehement trade strategies in the market competition. Research on ecomaterials has led to the development of new methods for the design of materials which have much lower environment loads in their life cycles and can be used to replace other higher impact materials. Also the ecomaterials learning, to be used as a new concept of materials, still is in the initial stage of the development, and its science is still in infancy. Moreover additional efforts are still needed for the ecomaterial learning, on the publicity and education, and lawmaking or evaluation standard etc.
