Materials flow (commodities) refers to the systematic analysis and quantification of the movement of physical commodity materials—such as metals, fossil fuels, biomass, or construction minerals—through extraction, processing, manufacturing, use, and end-of-life stages within an economic or geographic system. In research, materials flow studies employ mass-balance principles and standardized accounting frameworks (e.g., economy-wide material flow analysis) to track inputs, stocks, outputs, and losses, enabling assessment of resource efficiency, environmental pressures, and circularity potentials. This topic underpins indicators like material intensity, domestic material consumption, and provides a basis for evaluating decoupling of economic growth from resource use.
The quality of recycled plastic tends to be higher when the waste is pre-sorted by households compared with plastics recovered from mixed waste at a recycling facility in the Netherlands, research in Nature suggests. While ...
Environment
Jun 4, 2026
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By 2030, the global data centers powering artificial intelligence are projected to consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity. This is nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria—countries ...
Environment
Jun 3, 2026
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Magnets for electric cars and wind turbines contain only a small amount of the rare earth metal dysprosium. Yet, this metal is responsible for a large share of the environmental impact and costs, according to research by ...
Environment
Jun 2, 2026
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More than 900 million tonnes of materials, 4 million km2 of land, and 53 billion hours of labor. This is the scale of resources that the Global North net appropriated from Latin America through international trade in 2020 ...
Environment
May 18, 2026
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Millions more people will face hunger in the coming months if the conflict in the Middle East is not resolved soon, the UN has warned. The price of energy, which instantly affects the cost of producing and transporting food, ...
Environment
May 16, 2026
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36
I watched Armageddon again fairly recently with Bruce Willis, oil drillers in space and an asteroid the size of Texas bearing down on Earth. Buried beneath the Hollywood chaos is a genuinely interesting question: What exactly ...
Space Exploration
Apr 27, 2026
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Nutrients recovered from animal and human waste could drastically reduce synthetic fertilizer use in the U.S., according to a new Cornell University study that takes into account real-world implementation challenges like ...
Biotechnology
Apr 15, 2026
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968
When you reach for a "palm-oil-free" label at the supermarket, you likely feel you're doing your part to save orangutans and protect biodiversity. However, the reality behind that label is more complex than it appears.
Environment
Mar 22, 2026
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Kitchen sponges are considered a potential, yet largely understudied, source of microplastics in households. A study in Environmental Advances investigated how many microplastic particles are released from kitchen sponges ...
Environment
Mar 21, 2026
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1429
A major theme in communist governments is the idea of central planning. Every five years, the central authorities in communist countries lay out their goals for the country over the course of the next five years, which can ...
Space Exploration
Feb 14, 2026
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