Materials Flow and Sustainability

Waste or losses

Recycled

flow

Waste or losses Post-consumer

discards

Renewable and

nonrenewable

resources

Landfills, impoundments, deep wells, and

ocean disposal

Releases to air,

land, and water

Materials Flow Cycle

Resource

supply

Production and

manufacturing

Recycling

Consumption

 aterials extracted from the Earth 

are necessary to produce our most 

fundamental needs – food, clothing, 

and shelter. Materials are needed 

to maintain and improve our standard of living. Understanding the 

whole system of materials flow, 

from source to ultimate disposition, 

can help us better manage the use 

of natural resources and protect the 

environment.

Materials Flow

Materials flow, in its most literal sense, is a systems approach 

to understanding what happens to the materials we use from the 

time a material is extracted, through its processing and 

manufacturing, to its ultimate disposition. The U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) investigates how materials affect the economy, 

society, and the environment. The purpose of this work is to 

understand how and why we use our resources and to identify 

policies and practices that make resource use more efficient and 

more protective of the environment. Some materials-flow studies 

identify and trace trends that, if they continue, could have 

worldwide economic and environmental impacts. For example, 

when considering the total domestic non-food, non-fuel material 

consumption, a current significant trend is the declining share of 

renewable resources, such as agricultural and forestry products 

(i.e., cotton and wood), and the increasing share of nonrenewable 

resources, especially construction materials. Another type of 

materials-flow analysis is the commodity mass balance study, 

which follows and quantifies the flow of a single commodity 

through its entire cycle. These analyses identify areas where 

adverse impacts could be minimized through reducing wastes at the 

source of the materials, improving waste utilization, and enhancing 

efficiencies. Commodity mass balance studies have been 

completed on arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, 

manganese, mercury, salt, tungsten, vanadium, and zinc.

M

S

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1995

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

MILLIONS OF SHORT TONS

Great

Depression

WW I

Oil crisis

Recession

Construction

materials 

Industrial

minerals 

Metals

Nonrenewable

organics 

Agricultural &

forestry products 

Raw Materials Consumed in the

United States, 1900–1995

WW II

 ince 1900, use of construction materials 

such as crushed stone and sand and gravel 

has increased from about 35 percent to 60 

percent of total non-food, non-fuel raw 

materials consumption in the United 

States. Consumption of non-food and nonfuel agricultural and forestry products has 

dropped from about 60 percent to 5 percent of total raw materials consumption 

during the same period. 

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Fact Sheet FS-068-98

June 1998
Disposal

Mining

Supply

Recycled

aggregate

Natural

aggregate

Demolition

Construction

Recycling

Clean

fill 

Materials Flow Cycle for Aggregates Reports

Current reports include Aggregate 

from Natural and Recycled Sources; 

Economic Assessments for Construction 

Applications; Consumption of Materials 

in the United States, 1990 to1995; 

Crushed Cement Concrete Substitution 

for Construction Aggregates; Energy 

Consumption for Recycled and Natural 

Aggregates; Mercury – A Materials Flow 

Study – An Update; Recycling of Metals; 

Sulfur – A Materials Flow Study; Total 

Materials Consumption – An Estimation 

Methodology and Example Using Lead; 

and Trends in Minerals Exploration. 

When completed, selected reports will be 

posted on the USGS Minerals Information 

web page at:

http://minerals.er.usgs.gov/minerals

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

BILLIONS OF SHORT TONS

World

United States

Partnerships/Customers

The USGS works with other Federal, State, and local 

agencies and private interests to develop an understanding 

of materials flow and sustainability concepts and to form 

partnerships to address materials-related sustainability 

issues. U.S. governmental partners and customers include 

the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, the 

Environmental Protection Agency, the Interagency 

Materials Flow and Industrial Ecology Work Group, the 

President’s Council on Sustainable Development, the U.S. 

Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of 

Energy, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 eople worldwide consumed about 10 billion short 

tons of non-food, non-fuel raw materials in 1995, 

almost double the materials consumed in 1970. Over 

this period, the United States has been consuming 

about one-third of the world's total materials 

production.

World & U.S. Materials Use, 1970–1995

P

Prepared by John L. Sznopek

 and William M. Brown

For more information contact:

U.S. Geological Survey

(303) 236-8747, Ext. 238

Minerals Information Team