Analysis of the paper and wood flow in The Netherlands

Hekkert, MP Joosten, LAJ Worrell, E

Mp. Hekkert et al., Analysis of the paper and wood flow in The Netherlands, RESOUR CON, 30(1), 2000, pp. 29-48

15

INGLESE

Article

Environment/Ecology,"Environmental Engineering & Energy

RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING

0921-3449 → ACNP

30

1

2000

29 - 48

ISI

0921-3449(200007)30:1<29:AOTPAW>2.0.ZU;2-8

Current production structures require large amounts of primary materials an d are not likely to be sustained without large implications for the environ ment. A good understanding of societal metabolism is likely to contribute t o more sustainable production and consumption. Material flow analysis (MFA) intends to support this understanding by providing insight in material flo ws. In this article a new method for analyzing materials flows, called STRE AMS, is tested. The method is applied to analyze the paper and wood flow th rough the economic system of The Netherlands. The method is based on data a vailable from the so-called supply and use tables; these tables are made av ailable by Statistics Netherlands and describe the economy of a country in terms of annual supply and use of goods and services by industries and cons umers. The method proves to be very useful in analyzing the paper and wood flow in The Netherlands. The method provides detailed information about the final consumption of paper and wood, even for packaging materials and prod uct parts made out of paper and wood. Trends are visible that statistical o ffices collect less physical data about material flows. This will make the construction of material flow analyses like this one more difficult in the future. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.