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.
At picnics and World Cup watch parties across the United States this summer, people have been reaching for bowls of chips and guacamole. Most of that guacamole is made from avocados grown in Mexico—on orchards that, in what ...
Ecology
Jul 29, 2026
0
7
The sand used to build cities, roads and other infrastructure is being removed from many rivers faster than nature can replace it, according to a global review led by researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore ...
Environment
Jul 21, 2026
1
32
A new study by Caroline Ganglo and Stefan Karlowsky from the Leibniz Institute for Horticultural Sciences (IGZ) investigated whether human excreta-derived fertilizers are suitable for replacing mineral fertilizer in kohlrabi ...
Agriculture
Jul 15, 2026
0
6
The Netherlands is a major agricultural exporter. But look beyond euros to land, animal feed, calories and protein, and a different picture emerges. In a study published in Nature Food, researchers at Wageningen University ...
Agriculture
Jun 24, 2026
0
48
In the future, microorganisms could help return hard-to-recycle plastics to the recycling loop. Nick Wierckx, a molecular biologist at Jülich, explains the opportunities offered by biological recycling processes and the challenges ...
Biotechnology
Jun 19, 2026
0
41
Researchers have uncovered new insights into how phosphorus from recycled materials moves through soil—offering guidance to support more sustainable fertilizer use. Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for plant growth, yet ...
Biotechnology
Jun 10, 2026
0
7
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
0
7
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
0
19
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
0
13
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
0
13
