The international economics of resources and resource ... - Index of

258 R. Walz
recycling (e.g. shiftable adhesives for better separability) or resource efficient
products (e.g. fibre substitution in clothing). Other topics are less technology
specific, but also point to reduce the material input in production or products (e.g.
production on demand, resource efficient design, light construction). Finally, a third
set of topics is defined more broadly towards resource efficiency and includes areas
such as electric vehicles, traffic systems, use of membranes in water management, or
energy production and energy storage.
In this paper, the field of material efficiency is defined as in between a very
narrow and very wide interpretation. On the one hand, it does not include the third
set of the above mentioned Maress topics which relate to the energy, water and
transportation sector. These technologies are dealt with in this paper under the
headings of energy supply, transport or water technologies (see Section 2.1), but they
are not part of the material efficiency technologies. On the other hand, the topic of
material efficiency does not only comprise “material-efficient production processes”
and “recycling” but also the technology segment “renewable raw materials”.
Furthermore, the level of aggregation relates to technologies, which are in most
cases not specific to a single sector.
The segments covered by the subsector recycling include the detection, separation
and sorting of waste and its material recycling. The subsector of material-efficient
processes and products is based on the fundamental idea of designing products as
environmentally-friendly as possible. It represents a compilation of different
measures. These include technologies such as, e. g. lightweight construction,
lifespan extension, fiber reinforcement or corrosion protection and also more recent
service sector concepts (e. g. car sharing, print-on-demand). The subsector of
material-efficient production processes also incorporates various sub-aspects such as
optimizing the production processes (e. g. by reducing wastage or by standardizing
quality), a better utilization of appliances, systems and specialized machinery or
optimizations which affect the whole of the value added chain. However, there are
difficulties here with specifying these concepts in the data, especially with regard to
trade. Thus, the numbers only include part of the important technologies.
Many industrial sectors have a long tradition of using renewable raw materials. In
the past, products based on renewable materials were often displaced by fossil-based
products (e. g. celluloid, linoleum). However, more and more attention is being paid
to renewable-based products recently because of raw material and degradability
considerations. Both chemical raw materials (e. g. sugars and starches, oils and fats)
and products based on renewable raw materials (e. g. polymers, adhesives,
varnishes, and coatings) should be listed here. The trade indicators for renewable
materials comprise technologies to produce them and selected renewable raw
materials. Thus, the trade indicator in this subsector has to be interpreted with
caution because the numbers are influenced not only by technological capability but
also resource availability. This limitation does not apply to the patents in this
subsector. More fundamentally, the use of renewable raw materials has to be
interpreted with caution with regard to its environmental effects. Even though
renewable raw materials have not been debated as hotly as biofuels, the same
fundamental problems—e.g. crowding out of food production, loss of biodiversity,
use of pesticides or high virtual water content—have to be taken into account. Thus,
renewable raw materials cannot be judged as environmentally friendly per se, but