Environment at a Glance Dashboard

Material resources form the physical foundation of the economy and differ in their physical and chemical characteristics, their abundance and their value to countries. Economic growth generally implies growing demand for raw materials, energy and other natural resources. Growing amounts of materials end up as waste if not properly managed. Inappropriate material and waste management has adverse effects on human health and the environment, such as soil and water pollution, air quality, climate change, and degradation of natural habitats and ecosystems. The main challenge is to improve resource efficiency and productivity and ensure that materials are used efficiently at all stages of their lifecycle (extraction, transport, manufacturing, consumption, recovery and disposal) and throughout the supply chain.

Indicators on waste generation, treatment and disposal give indications on countries’ positioning in the waste hierarchy, which ranks waste prevention as the most preferred option that can be encouraged through eco-design, reuse, repair, refurbishment, re-manufacturing, and extended producer responsibility schemes. Material reuse is the second-best option, followed by recycling, composting and finally energy recovery. Waste disposal should be the last resort. 

Indicators on material consumption intensity, productivity and footprint shed lights on the material intensity of an economy and on whether materials are extracted locally or mostly imported. Because indicators are expressed in weight, they should be interpreted cautiously: a tonne of biomass has not the same economic value or environmental impact of a tonne of rare earths.