What Do Industrial Economies Use?

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Primary Contributions to the Total Material Requirements of Selected Economies, 1991

Fossil fuels and the hidden material flows associated with them make up a large percentage -- between 26 and 46 percent -- of the total materials used in the most industrialized countries. For more information see http://www.wri.org/trends/wasting.html.

Source: A. Adriaanse et al., Resource Flows, The Material Basis of Industrial Economies, a joint publication of the World Resources Institute (WRI); the Wuppertal Institute; the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment; and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (WRI, Washington, D.C., 1997), p. 12.