What is the average lifetime of copper in use?

The Copper Story received the following question:

"What is the average life time of copper in major/known applications like power cable for transmission, power cable in cars/electrical installations, wire in motors and transformers, copper tube, copper roof?"

In the Copper Flow model, we find the table below about copper's expected lifetime in 16 end-use applications. These lifetimes have been estimated as follows: first, a starting value was extracted or derived from the existing literature; then, these values were cross-checked in a global survey of experts from the copper industry as well as from related organizations [1].

While there remains some uncertainty on these numbers, especially for applications with very long lifetimes such as architecture or power cables, they represent a best possible estimate to a complex question. 

Taking a weighted average over these 16 applications, copper's lifetime in use is 25 years. 

Notes

[1] See table S4, page S14 in Supporting Information - A dynamic analysis of global copper flows. Global stocks, postconsumer material flows, recycling indicators & uncertainty evaluation (checked June 2021)

[2] You can verify the calculation in this article using the attached spreadsheet.

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Last update: July 27, 2021

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