Materials Count The Case for Material Flows Analysis (2004) / Chapter Skim
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5 Material Flows Information in the United States
5 Material Flows Information in the United States
Pages 59-68
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From page 59... ...
Geological Survey was transferred to the new bureau. The primary purpose of the early statistical accounts of mineral and metal reserves, production, consumption, and trade was to satisfy the need for information on materials for commerce and for national security, the latter leading to the establishment of strategic stockpiles.
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From page 60... ...
. This study, conducted as part of the Great Lakes Recycle Program, examined commodity flows to identify how regional procurement policies of state and local governments could be used to effect changes in flows that could reduce environmental impacts, increase recycling, and provide increased inner city employment.
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From page 61... ...
The available data include accounts with air permit data, water permit data, waste generation rates, and environmental discharge data that are searchable by facility, industrial sector, or geographical region. These examples of the evolution of material tracking data provide evidence of sophisticated and useful data sets, evolving to meet changing needs.
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From page 62... ...
The U.S. Geological Survey also publishes bulletins on the material flows of individual commodities and, occasionally, on total material flows for the entire United States using data from federal agencies and other sources (e.g., Wilburn and Goonan, 1998; Brown et al., 2000~.
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From page 63... ...
economy. Other related data sources exist, that link materials data with economic data.
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From page 64... ...
Some materials released even in small quantities can have significant environmental impacts, and these materials or their releases also may not show up in a database. Further, with a few exceptions, such as the Toxics Release Inventory and some periodic estimates of the generation of solid wastes, there is little information on the flow of materials into the environment in the form of industrial and municipal solid wastes or as emissions of materials into the air, water, or soil resulting from industrial processes, transportation, and energy generation and use.
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From page 65... ...
In Toxics Release Inventory reporting, tens of thousands of individual facilities report data tracking material flows that are spatially and chemically well characterized. The flows amount to billions of pounds per year.
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From page 66... ...
§ 6901 et seq.) biennial survey of hazardous wastes reports total flows of aqueous waste streams, including water, while the Toxics Release Inventory reports releases only of specified chemicals.
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From page 67... ...
The committeefurther concludes that these inadequacies impede the development of sound public policy and business decisions. The committee recommends that a national-level effort be initiated to identify and fill significant data gaps that presently impede the development of effective material flows accounts.
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From page 68... ...
These data were then compared with changes in the gross domestic product and population during the century to assess how the use of specific materials waxed and waned during that period and whether decoupling with respect to population and gross (lomestic product was in fact taking place. To obtain a global perspective, the growth of physical material flows in the United States was comparer!
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