Anthropogenic material stock growth

39% of the material consumption in the EU in 2022 was used to build up its material stock

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In the EU-27, 3,21 Gt or about 39% of all processed materials (primary and secondary materials) were used in 2022 for the build-up, maintenance, and operation of anthropogenic material stocks (see the stacked columns in Figure 1). The bulk of this by mass (2.84 Gt) is made up of non-metallic minerals used in the built environment (i.e., buildings and infrastructure) (Lanau et al., 2019). This is followed by metals (0.18 Gt), e.g., used in machinery and electronics, and biomass (0.17 Gt), e.g., for wood products or textiles. Fossil energy carriers/materials are largely used in a dissipative manner during the combustion for energy production and therefore only present in very small quantities in the anthropogenic stock (e.g., if used for durable plastics).

The share of processed materials accumulated in stocks often varies by economic area, depending on factors such as, e.g., (1) the existing magnitude and type of material stocks already present in a country or region (type of infrastructure, buildings, machinery, factories, etc.) that need to be maintained and operated (countries with larger existing stocks might require also a larger share of materials for their operation), (2) the efficiency with which existing stocks are being operated/maintained and their life-times, and (3) the dynamics with which the physical economy is altered (e.g., the rate at which stock-intensive sectors grow or decline over time).

As long as total material inputs to human-made stocks are continuing to grow in industrialized countries with high levels of wellbeing (i.e., the physical basis of the economy is expanding), significant improvements in material loop closing and emissions reductions are limited because materials in the stocks are not immediately available for recycling. Therefore, this indicator fiche tracks the average growth rate of material accumulation in the EU-27 from 2010 to 2022 as a proxy of physical stock growth. In the period 2010-2022, material stocks in the EU-27 grew by an average of 2.6%. This was mainly due to the use of non-metallic minerals for construction and infrastructure build-up. The annual percentage change varies over time and is shown graphically in Figure 1.

In a nutshell, the above metric looks at the growth rate of material accumulation for each year from 2010 to 2022 and then calculates the average. For example, for the EU-27 material accumulation increased by 11.2% from 2010 to 2011, decreased by -16.9% from 2011 to 2012, decreased by -3.8% from 2012 to 2013, etc. (annual percentage change in Figure 1). The average over all annual growth rates from 2010-2022 equals 2.6% (the two most significant outliers are excluded using the TRIMMEAN function in Excel).

Relevance to the circular economy

Due to their long life-times, anthropogenic material stocks act as a “buffer” in the socio-economic metabolism and influence current and future raw material and energy needs, emission and waste flows, and hence the level of economy-wide loop closing in the EU. Continuous stocks growth limits the magnitude of possible material loop closing and environmental protection in Europe, because additional physical assets require extra resources for operation/maintenance and delay the availability of secondary materials for recycling. Therefore, Europe should aim at monitoring and gradually stabilizing overall stock growth at levels that provide sufficient, sustainable services to its citizens. Circular economy monitoring frameworks increasingly provide the underlying data to track material stock accumulation over time. Data on absolute levels of material stocks in the EU are not yet widely available, but scientific research is ongoing to further incorporate such estimates into EU-statistics (e.g., (Wiedenhofer et al., 2019)). Circular economy policies play an important role in Europe’s path towards lowering economy-wide raw material needs, while ensuring a transition toward a physical economy that provides the necessary services to allow for a good life within planetary limits.

Anthropogenic material stocks (manufactured capital) is a wide-ranging term that includes buildings and infrastructure, machinery, and long-living consumer goods. They are essential providers of services and, hence, human wellbeing. Roughly half of all materials extracted globally are used for the build-up and maintenance of human-made material stocks (Krausmann et al., 2017). While material stocks provide important services to society, their build-up, maintenance, and especially operation is also associated with materials and energy use, and associated environmental implications (Krausmann et al., 2020). Material stocks also lead to long-term path dependencies, due to their lifetimes, and they determine future maintenance, waste flows, and energy flows for their operation.

Global material stocks are expected to continue to grow due to the large infrastructure and building demands in the Global South. However, a convergence to the level of industrial countries such as in the EU would result in an anticipated fourfold increase in global stocks (Krausmann et al., 2017), further accelerating global materials and energy demands and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Continuous material stocks growth also hinders loop closing as materials only become available after a significant time delay.

It is widely acknowledged that substantial growth is required in future technologies (e.g., renewable energies) and associated materials (e.g., strategic and critical metals) for the global sustainability transition, while environmentally-damaging activities such as fossil-based energy production need to be rapidly phased out. However, in order to allow for a fair and just transition globally, material requirements need to be kept at a minimum and existing material stocks used more effectively (e.g., by more intensive use of existing buildings and products, sharing models, repair and maintenance, efficiency improvements, etc.). Industrialized countries such as in the EU already have accumulated a wealth of materials in their economies. A gradual stabilization of material stocks in industrialized countries is essential to reduce yearly material throughput and emissions.

Definition

Material accumulation: Measures the ‘physical growth of the economy’. Materials are added to the economy’s stock each year (gross additions), and old materials are removed from stock as buildings are demolished, and durable goods are disposed of (removals). Therefore, GAS – removals = NAS (net additions to stock). In other words, net material accumulation equals material use for stock-accumulation, minus waste treatment (waste destined for treatment in recovery plants).

Processed materials: Defined as the sum total of direct material input (DMI) and secondary material inputs, i.e. materials from re- and downcycling.

Methodology

Data originate from Eurostat’s Material flows for circular economy - Sankey diagram data (env_ac_sd).

The average annual growth rate (AAGR) is calculated by first deriving the growth rate for each year and then taking the average. The two most significant outliers are excluded using the TRIMMEAN function in Excel.

Metadata

Source: Eurostat

Unit: Percentage

Temporal coverage: 2010-2022 (annual updates (T+11 months))

Geographic coverage: EU-27 and member states

Literature

Krausmann, F., et al., 2017, ‘Global socioeconomic material stocks rise 23-fold over the 20th century and require half of annual resource use’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(8), pp. 1880-1885.

Krausmann, F., et al., 2020, ‘Growing stocks of buildings, infrastructures and machinery as key challenge for compliance with climate targets’, Global Environmental Change 61, p. 102034 (DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102034).

Lanau, M., et al., 2019, ‘Taking Stock of Built Environment Stock Studies: Progress and Prospects’, Environmental Science & Technology 53(15), pp. 8499-8515 (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b06652).

Wiedenhofer, D., et al., 2019, ‘Integrating Material Stock Dynamics Into Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounting: Concepts, Modelling, and Global Application for 1900–2050’, Ecological Economics 156(April 2018), pp. 121-133 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.09.010).

References and footnotes

Materials used for energy provisioning (e.g., to heat buildings, power machinery, etc.) are not included in material accumulation which only includes metal ores, metals and non-metallic minerals, as well as those fractions of fossil and biomass materials not used for energy provision.
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