Resource use and materials

Raw materials and resources are essential for modern economies, but they come with environmental impacts. It is crucial that Europe sources and uses them responsibly to successfully transition towards a circular economy, climate neutrality and sustainability. We need to recycle these materials more while reducing extraction and consumption.

Raw materials like copper, iron, gold, limestone and gypsum, bauxite and aluminium, timber, chemical and fertiliser minerals, and salt, and key resources like water, energy and land form the foundation of everything we manufacture. Many of these materials and resources are limited and extracting and using them often has adverse environmental and social impacts.

Moreover, for some critical materials and resources, we often need to go beyond the EU to secure a steady supply. The recent pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have caused uncertainty and disruptions to global supply chains.

In the EU, non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials form a small part of all consumed natural resources. Nevertheless, their extraction and processing alone account for an estimated 18% of the EU’s total consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions.

Since 2010, the material footprint has remained relatively stable and was 6.1 billion tonnes in 2020. This level of consumption is not sustainable and is higher than the global average. Increasing the circular material use rate would reduce the extraction of natural resources and related environmental impacts. In 2021, recycled material accounted for 11.7% of the material used, an increase of less than one percentage point since 2010.

Responsible sourcing of materials is essential for Europe’s low-carbon transition and for achieving the ambitious goals of the European Green deal.

Our indicators show that

In 2021, recycled material accounted for 11.7% of the material used, an increase of less than one percentage point since 2010.
Considerable differences in the rate of circular material use are observed among countries, ranging from 33.8% in the Netherlands to 1.4% in Romania in 2021. This reflects significant structural difference in countries’ recycling capacities and in their levels of material consumption.
From 2010 to 2020, the EU’s material footprint remained relatively stable: it fell by 7% from 2010 to 2016 and increased by 5% from 2016 to 2019.
In 2020 the material footprint fell by 5% to 6.1 billion tonnes, but the 2020 data is heavily influenced by the economic slowdown due to the pandemic, which is considered a temporary phenomenon.

The International Resource Panel estimates that:

Raw material processing and extraction (i.e. fossil energy carriers, non-metallic minerals, metal ores, and biomass) are responsible for around 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90% of global water stress and land-use-related biodiversity loss.
Greenhouse gas emissions associated with extracting and processing selected non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials (i.e. copper, iron, gold, limestone and gypsum, bauxite and aluminium, timber, chemical and fertilizer minerals, and salt) used in the EU-27 account for 18% of all consumption-related GHG-emissions.
The social impacts of mining (for example, adverse human rights issues or unequal distribution of resources) and benefits from income and employment in the sourcing countries are frequently reported.

In 2008, the European Commission adopted the raw materials initiative which set out a strategy for tackling the issue of access to raw materials in the EU. The initiative aims to ensure:

A fair and sustainable supply of raw materials from global markets;
A sustainable supply of raw materials within the EU;
Resource efficiency and supply of secondary raw materials through recycling.

The EU’s circular economy action plan ensures that this supply is used responsibly and that critical raw materials are not wasted during the product lifecycle. The plan targets how products are designed, promotes circular economy processes, encourages sustainable consumption, helps prevent waste and keeps resources in the EU economy for as long as possible.

Achieving the goals of the European Green Deal and the circular economy action plan requires robust knowledge and data on materials and resource use to manage supply and demand better and strengthen the competitiveness of the European industry. To address supply concerns for some critical materials, the European Commission has recently also proposed the European Critical Materials Act.

The European Environment Agency is working with European and global organisations to understand, monitor and analyse Europe’s material and resource use. In this context, the EEA's work also focuses on a few material flows, such as plastics and textiles.

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Frequently asked questions

Keeping valuable materials in a circular economy

The EU aims to double its use of recycled material, in terms of its share in the total amount of material used by the economy, between 2020 and 2030, as set out in the circular economy action plan. Increasing the circular material use rate would reduce the extraction of natural resources and related environmental impacts. In 2021, recycled material accounted for 11.7% of the material used.

The circular material use rate for the various material groups differs significantly, with metal ores above 22% and for fossil fuels only 3% in 2021.

Given this relatively stable trend of the past decade, doubling the circular material use rate by 2030 will be very challenging. Nevertheless, some EU countries show promising results.

See EEA indicator on circular materials

How big is Europe's material footprint?

The EU’s material footprint refers to the amount of material extracted from nature, both inside and outside the EU, to manufacture or provide the goods and services consumed by EU citizens.

From 2010 to 2020, the EU’s material footprint remained relatively stable. Of the various material groups, consumption of non-metallic minerals is the highest, accounting for 50% of the footprint in 2020. Biomass was the next largest group (23%), followed by fossil fuels (19%) and metals (9%). Although non-metallic minerals account for a large part of the total material footprint, they have less of an impact on the environment and climate than metals and fossil fuels, relative to their shares of the material footprint.

The EU's Eighth Environment Action Programme calls for a significant decrease in the EU’s material footprint.

More in EEA indicator on material footprint

Tracking raw material use in Europe

The EEA has ongoing cooperation with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre to compile knowledge on raw material security and sustainability. The result is the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS), a knowledge platform on non-fuel, non-agricultural raw materials from primary and secondary sources.

More on Raw Materials Information System

The International Resource Panel (IRP) was launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2007 to help build and share the knowledge needed to improve resource use worldwide. Here, EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx collaborates with 29 esteemed scientists to study key questions around resource use and produce assessment reports on global resource use.

Overall, the panel aims to produce guidance and connections between policymakers, industry, and the community on improving global resource management.

Visit the International Resource Panel website

Resource use and materials

Keeping valuable materials in a circular economy

How big is Europe's material footprint?

Tracking raw material use in Europe

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Resource use and materials

Keeping valuable materials in a circular economy

How big is Europe's material footprint?

Tracking raw material use in Europe

Sharing knowledge on global resource use

More information

Other topics you might be interested in:

External links: