Material flows and resource productivity
Material resources are essential for the functioning of our economies and maintaining our lifestyles. However, the extractions of such resources and the resulting discharges of residuals and waste may create risks for the environment and human health.
To quantify and study the flow of natural materials and their use in the economy, Eurostat uses economy-wide material flow accounts. These material flows exclude water and air.
Eurostat collects the following material flows variables:
- domestic extractions of materials, broken down by biomass, metal ores, non-metallic minerals and fossil energy materials/carriers
- imports and exports of materials
- domestic processed outputs and emissions to the air
Some indicators which are derived from the economy-wide material flow accounts are:
- domestic material consumption: It measures the total amount of materials directly used by an economy. It is defined as the annual quantity of raw materials extracted from the territory of a country, plus all physical imports and minus all physical exports;
- resource productivity: It is the gross domestic product (GDP) generated per unit of domestic material consumed (DMC). GDP is a measure of economic production and wealth, DMC is a measure of natural resources extracted. Their ratio indicates the ability of our economies to create wealth with fewer extractions of natural resources, or to create more wealth with the same amount of extractions. This is called ‘decoupling’ whenever we break the link between environment extractions and economic growth;
- material footprint: This is also called raw material consumption. It measures the worldwide demand for material extractions triggered by consumption and investment in the European Union.
Data collection and publication
Eurostat undertakes annual data collections. The EW-MFA questionnaire as well as compilation guidelines can be found on the methodology page.
Eurostat has published the country RME tool (RME = raw material equivalents), accompanied by the handbook country RME tool and the input data. These can facilitate compiling extended material flow accounts at country level. This tool allows the user to estimate country-level estimates of imports and exports in RME and raw material consumption (RMC).