Quantification of anthropogenic metabolism using spatially differentiated continuous MFA

Schiller, Georg; Gruhler, Karin; Ortlepp, Regine

doi:10.1515/cass-2017-0011

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Discrepancies between the amount of recovered and actually recycled materials replacing primary material are not well understood and reported and lead to an overestimation of socioeconomic cycling rates. Schiller and colleagues () conclude that for Germany, only 48% of outflows of concrete and bricks are suitable for high‐quality recycling, reducing the recycling share in fresh concrete to a maximum of 32%. A Swiss study of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, tinplate, aluminum, paper and cardboard, and glass reveals that actual recycling rates are substantially lower than reported in official statistics (Haupt et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Progress towards a Circular Economy: A Monitoring Framework for Economy‐wide Material Loop Closing in the EU28

Mayer

Haas

Wiedenhofer

et al. 2018

J of Industrial Ecology

238

108

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Summary The concept of a circular economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention from policy makers, industry, and academia. There is a rapidly evolving debate on definitions, limitations, the contribution to a wider sustainability agenda, and a need for indicators to assess the effectiveness of circular economy measures at larger scales. Herein, we present a framework for a comprehensive and economy‐wide biophysical assessment of a CE, utilizing and systematically linking official statistics on resource extraction and use and waste flows in a mass‐balanced approach. This framework builds on the widely applied framework of economy‐wide material flow accounting and expands it by integrating waste flows, recycling, and downcycled materials. We propose a comprehensive set of indicators that measure the scale and circularity of total material and waste flows and their socioeconomic and ecological loop closing. We applied this framework in the context of monitoring efforts for a CE in the European Union (EU28) for the year 2014. We found that 7.4 gigatons (Gt) of materials were processed in the EU and only 0.71 Gt of them were secondary materials. The derived input socioeconomic cycling rate of materials was therefore 9.6%. Further, of the 4.8 Gt of interim output flows, 14.8% were recycled or downcycled. Based on these findings and our first efforts in assessing sensitivity of the framework, a number of improvements are deemed necessary: improved reporting of wastes, explicit modeling of societal in‐use stocks, introduction of criteria for ecological cycling, and disaggregated mass‐based indicators to evaluate environmental impacts of different materials and circularity initiatives.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Progress towards a Circular Economy: A Monitoring Framework for Economy‐wide Material Loop Closing in the EU28

Mayer

Haas

Wiedenhofer

et al. 2018

J of Industrial Ecology

238

108

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“…Areas with high vacancy rates tend to have lower demand for new construction (Volk et al 2019), while areas with low vacancy rates have higher construction demand (Zabel 2016). Improved modeling of construction and demolition considering local population growth and vacancy rates can facilitate more reliable construction and demolition material flow estimates at local levels (Schiller et al 2017b), where reuse of bulky materials is more feasible. This paper describes the development and application of a housing stock model for 3108 US counties (excluding counties in Alaska and Hawaii) and projects the evolution of the US housing stock by county over the period 2020-60.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material flows and GHG emissions from housing stock evolution in US counties, 2020–60

Berrill

Hertwich

2021

Buildings and Cities

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The evolution of housing stocks determines demand for construction materials and energy, and associated emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs). The contribution of construction to building life-cycle emissions is growing as buildings become more energy efficient and the energy supply decarbonizes. A housing stock model is developed for counties in the United States using dynamic vacancy rates which endogenously influence stock out-and inflows. Stocks of three house types and 10 construction cohorts are projected for all contiguous US counties for the period 2020-60. Inflows and outflows of construction materials are then estimated along with GHG emissions associated with material production and construction activities in scenarios defined by stock turnover rates, population share by house type, and floor area characteristics of new houses. The results provide new insights into the drivers of construction-related emissions at local and national levels, and identify opportunities for their reduction. Demolition material flows grow in relation to construction material flows over the analysis period. Increasing the stock turnover rate increases future floor area per person, material requirements, and emissions from construction. Scenarios with reduced floor area and more multifamily homes in new construction have lower floor area growth, material requirements, and emissions from construction.

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“…Germany is a highly industrialized country and has been the subject of much research related to material consumption, material efficiency, and material stock and flow analysis [3,9,16,18,[52][53][54].…”

Section: Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of Mining and Landfilling Activities with Associated Overburden through Satellite Data: Germany 2000–2010

et al. 2019

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Despite ever-increasing material extraction on the global scale, very few studies have focused on the relationship between mining activities, overburden, and landfilling. This is mainly due to the lack of statistical data. Yet, large mining activities cause environmental strain to the natural environment, and are often cause of irreversible alterations to the natural landscape. To circumvent this problem, we develop a methodology that employs the digital elevation model and land cover to detect and analyze mining and landfilling site over time. We test our methodology with the case of Germany for the years 2000-2010. We then confront our results with statistically available data, to verify whether this methodology can be applied to other countries. Results from the analysis of satellite data give 15.3 Pg of extracted materials and 7.8 Pg of landfilled materials, while statistics report 29.4 Pg and 1.8 Pg, respectively. This large difference was likely due to the different frequency of recording, where satellite data was updated after 10 years, while statistics were reported yearly. The analysis of the anthropogenic disturbance with spatial information can effectively contribute to observe, analyze, and quantify mining activities, overburden, and landfills, and can thus provide policy makers with useful and practical information regarding resource usage and waste management.

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Quantification of anthropogenic metabolism using spatially differentiated continuous MFA

Cited by 12 publications

References 44 publications

Measuring Progress towards a Circular Economy: A Monitoring Framework for Economy‐wide Material Loop Closing in the EU28

Measuring Progress towards a Circular Economy: A Monitoring Framework for Economy‐wide Material Loop Closing in the EU28

Material flows and GHG emissions from housing stock evolution in US counties, 2020–60

Estimation of Mining and Landfilling Activities with Associated Overburden through Satellite Data: Germany 2000–2010

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