Summary
Economy-wide material flow analysis (MFA) and derived indicators have been developed to monitor and assess the metabolic performance of economies, that is, with respect to the internal economic flows and the exchange of materials with the environment and with other economies. Indicators such as direct material input (DMI) and direct material consumption (DMC) measure material use related to either production or consumption. Domestic hidden flows (HF) account for unused domestic extraction, and foreign HF represent the upstream primary resource requirements of the imports. DMI and domestic and foreign HF account for the total material requirement (TMR) of an economy. Subtracting the exports and their HF provides the total material consumption (TMC).

DMI and TMR are used to measure the (de-) coupling of resource use and economic growth, providing the basis for resource efficiency indicators. Accounting for TMR allows detection of shifts from domestic to foreign resource requirements. Net addition to stock (NAS) measures the physical growth of an economy. It indicates the distance from flow equilibrium of inputs and outputs that may be regarded as a necessary condition of a sustainable mature metabolism.

We discuss the extent to which MFA-based indicators can also be used to assess the environmental performance. For that purpose we consider different impacts of material flows, and different scales and perspectives of the analysis, and distinguish between turnover-based indicators of generic environmental pressure and impact-based indicators of specific environmental pressure. Indicators such as TMR and TMC are regarded as generic pressure indicators that may not be used to indicate specific environmental impacts. The TMR of industrial countries is discussed with respect to the question of whether volume and composition may be regarded as unsustainable.

background

Material flow accounts: the USA and the world

Rationale for and Interpretation of Economy‐Wide Materials Flow Analysis and Derived Indicators

The United States is not only the world's largest economy, but it is also one of the world's largest consumers of natural resources. The country, which is inhabited by some 5% of the world's population, uses roughly one-fifth of the global primary energy supply and 15% of all extracted materials. This article explores long-term trends and patterns of material use in the United States. Based on a material flow account (MFA) that is fully consistent with current standards of economy-wide MFAs and covers domestic extraction, imports, and exports of materials for a 135-year period, we investigated the evolution of the U.S. industrial metabolism. This process was characterized by an 18-fold increase in material consumption, a multiplication of material use per capita, and a shift from renewable biomass toward mineral and fossil resources. In spite of considerable improvements in material intensity, no dematerialization has happened so far; in contrast to other high-income countries, material use has not stabilized since the 1970s, but has continued to grow. This article compares patterns and trends of material use in the United States with those in Japan and the United Kingdom and discusses the factors underlying the disproportionately high level of U.S. per capita resource consumption.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/j_1530-9290_2011_00404_x_wml.pdf?abstractid=2073110&mirid=1&type=2

The Physical Economy of the United States of America.

Summary The notion of a (socio-) metabolic transition has been used todescribe fundamental changes in socioeconomic energy andmaterial use during industrialization. During the last century,Japandevelopedfromalargelyagrarianeconomytooneoftheworld’s leading industrial nations. It is one of the few industrialcountries that has experienced prolonged dematerializationand recently has adopted a rigorous resource policy. This arti-cle investigates changes in Japan’s metabolism during industri-alization on the basis of a material ﬂow account for the periodfrom 1878 to 2005. It presents annual data for material ex-traction, trade, and domestic consumption by major materialgroup and explores the relations among population growth,economic development, and material (and energy) use. Dur-ing the observed period, the size of Japan’s metabolism grewby a factor of 40, and the share of mineral and fossil materialsin domestic material consumption (DMC) grew to more than90%. Much of the growth in the Japanese metabolism wasbased on imported materials and occurred in only 20 yearsafter World War II (WWII), when Japan rapidly built up largestocks of built infrastructure, developed heavy industry, andadopted patterns of mass production and consumption. Thesurge in material use came to an abrupt halt with the ﬁrstoil crisis, however. Material use stabilized, and the economyeventually began to dematerialize. Although gross domesticproduct (GDP) grew much faster than material use, improve-mentsinmaterialintensityarearelativelyrecentphenomenon.Japanemergesasarolemodelforthemetabolictransitionbutis also exceptional in many ways.www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jie

The Metabolic Transition in Japan A Material Flow Account for the Period From 1878 to 2005

Minerals, Metals and Sustainability

Cette these aborde principalement le phenomene de l'allocation des dechets entre filieres de traitement des dechets. Les connaissances obtenues d'une etude de cas exploratoire sur la gestion du dechet de bois en Suisse et d'une revue de la litterature scientifique ont conduit a developper la methode analytique du processus d'allocation des dechets. Cette methode est mise en œuvre dans une etude de cas sur l'allocation des dechets menagers dans le Canton de Geneve. Elle constitue une methode simple, reproductible et accessible pour l'evaluation des systemes de gestion des dechets. Cette these se poursuit avec la creation d'une methode hybride pour l'evaluation des politiques de gestion des dechets et de ses instruments. Cette methode est appliquee a l'evaluation des politiques genevoises de tri des dechets urbains qui constitue une approche fiable pour mesurer l'efficacite des instruments politiques.

/pdf/explaining-the-phenomenon-of-waste-allocation-among-waste-4mxk1xd1zk.pdf

Material flow accounts: the USA and the world

Citations

Rationale for and Interpretation of Economy‐Wide Materials Flow Analysis and Derived Indicators

The Physical Economy of the United States of America.

The Metabolic Transition in Japan A Material Flow Account for the Period From 1878 to 2005

Minerals, Metals and Sustainability

Explaining the phenomenon of waste allocation among waste treatment operations: case studies, concepts & methods

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