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Urban stocks and processes (continued)

Materials (continued)

Material consumption by end use

Detailed data on the amount of material used by each sector of industry is not systematically recorded, although individual industries do collect and publish selected information. However, input-output financial flow data between national economic sectors defined by the ABS (1999e) are well recorded. The pattern of material use in the Australian economy by end use can be summarised as follows:

Iron and steel consumption is spread across all industry sectors, but is dominated by metal products manufacturers (33% of the total consumption), machinery and equipment (17%), transport (16% of consumption), and building and construction (12%). Efforts to reduce the consumption of steel require assessments of the lifecycle performance of alternatives. In the packaging sector, steel recycling is well established and is currently recovering around 40% of cans nationally from kerbside collections (Warren Knox, BHP Packaging, pers. comm., 25 July 2000).

Non-ferrous metals (e.g. aluminium and copper) are used extensively in electrical equipment and appliances (over 25% of the total consumption). Here, good design practice should aim to reduce the amounts of materials as well as the number and diversity of materials in consumer products to facilitate recovery at the end of the life of these products. Unlike the building and packaging areas, recovery of metals from electrical products is less likely to occur, particularly from smaller products. The Commission of the European Communities is proposing a directive to deal with waste electrical and electronic equipment, with good design and end of life management becoming the responsibility of producers (Commission of the European Communities 2000).

Construction materials are predominantly used in the building, infrastructure and construction sectors (approximately 90% of the total consumption). As insulating techniques improve, our opportunities to use lighter constructions with intelligent use of passive solar design and cross-flow ventilation will help reduce construction material use (see recycling of construction wastes).

Agricultural produce is used mainly for the provision of meat and meat products (over 50% of the total consumption), while other food products make up most of the remainder, excluding 7% that is used in the textile industry. The shift to more intensive farming techniques has resulted in a shift in the destination of agricultural crops away from food production for human consumption and into the production of animal food products. While it is much more efficient, from a gross food value perspective, to permit animals to eat the crops directly, consumer preference and the availability of some nutritional components makes such intensive meat production economically viable, particularly given the frequent overproduction of agricultural products in many Western countries. Future limiting factors for this production will be the availability of fertile land, the supply of water and the discharge of wastewater.

Timber products, which excluded paper-based products, are predominantly used in residential buildings (55% of the total consumption), with only small quantities being used in other sectors such as furniture (12%), other construction and wholesale trade. The use of timber framing is an ingrained building technique, particular in the high-volume, detached building market; however, inner-city medium density redevelopments involve a greater diversity of building methods. The high use of timber in wholesale trade could be put down to the construction of transport packaging and pallets. There are opportunities here to reduce this consumption through the use of reusable containers and pallets.

Paper production is largely used for printed and published media (57% of the total consumption), the remainder being consumed largely in packaging applications (23%). The use of paper in Australia steadily increased from 2808 kt in 1988-89 to 3461 kt in 1998-99, with newsprint and publishing and writing papers representing just over 50% of consumption by weight (PPMFA 1989, 1999). This has occurred despite the promise of the 'paperless office'. Recycling of paper, however, offers some promise in reducing the environmental impact of paper consumption. The Publishers National Environment Bureau, a national industry body, has committed the newsprint industry to recovering 74% of newsprint by 2005, which will be up from the 1999 recovery rate of 70% (National Environment Bureau 2000).

Plastic products are very diverse, with a wide range of applications in other industry sectors. Packaging is the largest consumer of plastic (37% of the total consumption), with significant uses also in building and construction (27%) and manufacturing (13%). The National Packaging Covenant represents a significant policy initiative in the management of used packaging and paper products. It is a self-regulatory agreement based on the principles of product stewardship and shared responsibility, and establishes a framework for the effective life-cycle management of packaging and paper products (ANZECC 1999). Action plans are being developed by many packaging industries, and it is hoped that a range of management strategies, including good design and provision of recovery infrastructure, will facilitate the efficient use and recovery of plastic packaging.

Implications

Material use is increasing in both gross and per capita terms. Despite growth in the services sector, Australia remains heavily reliant on material commodities for its national wealth. This has substantial environmental consequences, as well as challenges for a decrease in the use of materials by our society and economy. Much is being done in industry to reduce the negative environmental impacts, but reduction at the source through lower material use is also required.

Energy and raw materials have traditionally been seen by Australians as, in general, unlimited in supply, and the cost of materials compared to labour has historically been low. These factors have led to the optimisation of labour use rather than resource use. This has implications for the viability of recycling operations that are often labour intensive in collection and reprocessing. On the one hand the virgin material usually occurs in discrete locations and in large quantities, while the 'used' material is distributed across human settlements. Improvements in collection and sorting are increasing the viability of recycling operations, as is the science underpinning material reactivation which is necessary to produce new composite materials with equivalent or better performance in comparison to the traditional products.

Overproduction of materials worldwide has also driven the value of materials down, dampening the need to reduce material consumption or recover used materials. This is particularly problematic for plastics because the materials are highly diversified and difficult to reclaim. The use of 'eco-taxes' is being considered in some European countries to increase the prices of raw materials and energy. However, this seems unlikely in the Australian context in the near future.

Because capital plant for producing materials has a long life (20-30 years), improvements in technology are slow to affect material producers, particularly in a small economy such as Australia. For this reason, a range of strategies needs to be considered in reducing material production impacts, including retrofitting technology for cleaner production and waste treatment. Added to this is a need to look at the full benefits of new and cleaner technology, including reduced raw material and energy costs, environmental management costs, liability costs and image-related costs (USEPA 1995). Environmental cost accounting is being used in major corporations around the world to examine the full benefits of cleaner manufacturing processes. Eco-labelling of products to reflect such factors as embodied energy and recyclability (percentage use of waste product) can be expected to grow as a result of government incentives and regulation, consumer awareness, and technologies that enable economic production of materials from waste composites. As information on the full spectrum of waste streams improves (i.e. what is generated where), as their chemistry is better characterised, and as investment increases in their use in new, hybrid material products, an entire set of new industries based on industrial ecology principles is set to emerge.

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