Visualized: The Material Global Resource Footprint – ENERGYminute

In 2017, global resource footprint exceeded 100 billion tons per year of material consumption to satisfy key societal needs. 92 billion tons were raw materials while 8.6 billion tons came from recycled materials (UN GEO).

With only 8.6 percent of material consumption being recycled, down from 9.1 percent in 2015, significant effort will be required going forward to find ways to decrease our waste in order to sustain our resource base.

Abbreviation:

UN GEO – United Nations Environment Programme, Global Environment Outlook for Business

Bt – billion tons

Source:

https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/36830/RBMLCE.pdf?sequence=3