The choice of indicators is relevant to assess how resources are used in Germany. It is pos-sible, for example, to take account of such changes in the international division of labour as reduced vertical integration and an increase in international trade over and above the level of economic growth. Raw material equivalents can be used both to determine initial raw material input and to allocate exports to the country of ultimate use. The data show that Germany is making considerable advances in resource productivity and its progress compares well with that of other EU countries. However, the Federal Government’s target of doubling Germany’s 1994 level of raw material productivity by 2020, as envisaged in its 2002 National Sustainability Strategy, will be hard to achieve.
Sarah Fluchs / Adriana Neligan IW-Report No. 2 16. January 2023
Urban mining for a circular economy: How high are the raw material potentials through urban mining?
Natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce, one reason being that significantly more natural raw materials are currently being mined and processed worldwide than Earth can provide over the same period.
Sarah Fluchs / Carmen Schleicher IW-Report No. 68 22. December 2022
The material metabolism of North Rhine-Westphalia
The current use of natural resources exceeds planetary limits and thus endangers the resilience of the Earth's ecosystem. The growing consumption of raw materials and the resulting increase in waste and emissions constitute a long-term threat to the ...
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German Economic Institute (IW) 
