Is zinc a renewable resource?
Not really. Zinc is a recycle-able resource in that it is an element that cannot be created or destroyed. But renewable? If you mine zinc out of the ground, it’s gone from there forever. There’s plenty of zinc in the ground to last a really long time, but mining does a number to the environment, so recycling all metals and mined materials is a good idea. We usually think of renewable resources as ones that can replenish themselves at the rate that you use them. For example, farming food is renewable–you harvest as much as you grow. Solar energy is effectively renewable, at least for the next few billion years as the sun keeps releasing more energy. Fossil fuels are not because it took them millions of years to form, but only a few decades for us to deplete them. Other stuff we mine will never be replenished, though they may be very abundant.
