The Global Cost of Corrosion

This is an important issue. People keep talking about recycling, but much more important than recycling is just being able to use a thing for longer before you are even thinking about recycling it.<p>Japanese automakers did the world a great favor when in the 80s and 90s they made much longer lasting cars and made longevity and resale value an important consideration in the purchasing decision. They did this mostly by using better paints and making sure cars and car parts are painted more thoroughly.<p>There are modern materials that prevent corrosion. Here is a company that sells ordinary looking paper that you can use to wrap anything and it will prevent it from rusting.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zerust.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zerust.com&#x2F;</a>

I’ve spent years working on a VW bus restoration, and this is something I’ve thought about so much. Once you’ve had to clean up rust you begin to see it everywhere. It’s like having a disease.<p>Anyways, yeah it would be fantastic if metal just didn’t corrode. That would be one of the greatest gifts to the world.

These HN posts about Rust are out of control.

This is why I get scared when I see articles about people developing plastic eating bacteria. Sure it is great for reducing waste but it’s a dangerous game to be playing for sure.

Btw, since this is a common misconception: the cost for repairing &#x2F; replacing corroded metal actually <i>increases</i> GDP. It&#x27;s not clear from the article what they mean by &#x27;costs&#x27; (they could also mean how many other goods weren&#x27;t produced because of corrosion damage, which would be lost GDP), but that&#x27;s something to be aware of.

A soviet-era book on machining I recently read stated that up until that point, about 40% of the total steel and cast iron production since 1890 has been lost to corrosion.

Wrt to salt water corrosion, having been around folks involved with boats and boatbuilding all my life, the &#x27;best&#x27; material for building a boat or yacht is an ever-green topic with no resolution in sight. Of course, for factory-produced boats made in large series, GRP reigns supreme, which is why most boats out there are GRP, but for one-offs it&#x27;s still hotly debated. Steel, aluminum, wood (in all kinds of variations), GRP all have their pros and cons. People even made yachts out of ferrocement, though it seems the popularity of that method has waned.

I imagine a substantial part of this is the rusting of rebar in concrete structures. The problem of rebar has fascinated me, and one German company has begin making carbon fiber reinforced concrete instead of steel, with amazing results. You can reduce environmental waste by having structures last longer and you use less concrete. I&#x27;m looking forward to this becoming more ubiquitous.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aboutcivil.org&#x2F;carbon-reinforced-concrete-building-cube" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aboutcivil.org&#x2F;carbon-reinforced-concrete-buildi...</a>

For those who want a deeper dive into this subject read the book “Rust: The Longest War&quot; by Jonathan Waldman.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.simonandschuster.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;Rust&#x2F;Jonathan-Waldman&#x2F;9781451691603" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.simonandschuster.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;Rust&#x2F;Jonathan-Waldman...</a>

Isn&#x27;t this like corrosion engineers validating their own industry? I mean it&#x27;s a fair talking point but also like asking VCs how good their returns are?

Why aren&#x27;t bridges and ships made out of stainless steel? Is it too expensive, or not as strong as regular steel?

An extremely important topic, especially since I&#x27;ve been hearing about it all my life (disclaimer, my father, past president of the International Corrosion Council (ICC) and 2022 recipient of the Corrosion Awareness Award from the World Corrosion Organisation (WCO), the European Federation of Corrosion (EFC) and the Chinese Society of Corrosion and Protection (CSCP) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corrosion.org&#x2F;Awards.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corrosion.org&#x2F;Awards.html</a>). For those who want to learn a little more about his insights and the summary of a long career, 2 years ago he set up this free blog just about corrosion: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.materials.business" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.materials.business</a>. For example, he talks about how he calculated the international cost of corrosion damage for 2019 to be USD$4.8 trillion. And only a fraction of that amount represents the cost of steel that had to be replaced due to corrosion problems. (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.materials.business&#x2F;19&#x2F;01&#x2F;2021&#x2F;engineering-materials-the-real-cost" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.materials.business&#x2F;19&#x2F;01&#x2F;2021&#x2F;engineering-mater...</a>)

Nothing more annoying than having a car slowly depreciate only because of rust and not having any type of other issues

Rust - The Longest War; is a book about this topic, very insightful read.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Rust-Longest-War-Jonathan-Waldman&#x2F;dp&#x2F;1451691602" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Rust-Longest-War-Jonathan-Waldman&#x2F;dp&#x2F;...</a>

Rust&#x27;s a Must, by T.R.B. Watson:<p>&quot;&quot;&quot; Mighty ships upon the ocean<p>Suffer from severe corrosion<p>Even those that stay at dockside<p>Are rapidly becoming oxide.<p>Alas, that piling in the sea<p>Is mostly FE2O3<p>And when the ocean meets the shore,<p>You&#x27;ll find there&#x27;s FE3O4.<p>&#x27;Cause when the wind is salt and gusty<p>Things are getting awful rusty<p>We can measure it, we can test it<p>We can halt it or arrest it<p>We can gather it and weigh it<p>We can coat it, we can spray it<p>We can examine and dissect it<p>We can cathodically protect it<p>We can pick it up and drop it<p>But heaven knows, we&#x27;ll never stop it.<p>So here&#x27;s to rust: No doubt about it,<p>Most of us would starve without it. &quot;&quot;&quot;

If you aren&#x27;t yet attuned to this specific aspect of life on Earth, owning an Atlantic-facing beach house on the Florida coast will teach you that lesson real quick.

Sounds like a startup idea&#x2F;thesis?

I found it remarkable that the term “corrosion”, which underpins the whole work, was never defined.

I live somewhat near the beach. How can I prevent my electronic gadgets to rust?

Floating metal in salt water. Yeah?

The environmentalists killed a zinc mine in my state due to pollution concerns. Of course every pound of zinc not mined meant more steel without zinc protection, and hence more rust and more mining of iron ore. Arguments like this were completely lost on them.