STREAMS: a new method for analysing material flows through society

Joosten, LAJ Hekkert, MP Worrell, E Turkenburg, WC

Laj. Joosten et al., STREAMS: a new method for analysing material flows through society, RESOUR CON, 27(3), 1999, pp. 249-266

7

INGLESE

Article

Environment/Ecology,"Environmental Engineering & Energy

RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING

0921-3449 → ACNP

27

3

1999

249 - 266

ISI

0921-3449(199908)27:3<249:SANMFA>2.0.ZU;2-D

For the development of material, product and waste oriented policies, knowl edge about the flow, use and disposal of materials through society is neces sary. The risks of taking policy measures leading to suboptimum solutions o f environmental problems call for an integral survey of material flows thro ugh society. However, up to now, integral analyses of physical material flo ws have been lacking. Problems such as differences in definitions, in subdi visions of flows and in reference years make it difficult to relate data fr om different sources to obtain an overall view. In this article, STREAMS, a new method to calculate physical material hows through society, is propose d. The method is based on the so-called supply and use tables, which descri be a country's economy in terms of supply and use of materials, products an d services by industries, service sectors and consumers. In our approach, m aterials and products are tracked on their way from extraction of raw mater ials to the final consumption of products and beyond, into the stage of was te. The method has the advantage of deriving almost all data from one sourc e. In this article the method is described. In a separate study, the method is applied to obtain an integral survey of the flow of plastics through Th e Netherlands, showing that the method can be used to assess the final mate rials consumption on a highly detailed level. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V . All rights reserved.