Definition
The goal of material flow accounting is to ensure national planning, especially for scarce resources, and to allow forecasting. It also allows to assess environmental burdens through economic activities of a nation or to determine how material intensive an economy is.
The principle concept underlying MFA is a simple model of this interrelation between the economy and the environment, in which the economy is an embedded subsystem of the environment. Similar to living beings, this subsystem is dependent on a constant throughput of materials and energy. Raw materials, water and air are extracted from the natural system as inputs, transformed into products and finally re-transferred to the natural system as outputs (waste and emissions). In order to highlight the similarity to natural metabolic processes, the terms “industrial” or “societal” metabolism have been introduced.
In MFA studies for a region or on a national level the flows of materials between the natural environment and the economy are analyzed and quantified on a physical level. The focus may be on individual substances (e.g. Cadmium flows), specific materials, or bulk material flows (e.g. steel and steel scrap flows within an economy). Research on MFA is strong in Germany, Austria and the United States. Researchers in this field are organized in the ConAccount network.
Statistics related to material flow accounting are usually compiled by national statistical offices, using economic, agricultural and trade statistics measuring the exchange of material between different products available in an economy.
Read more about this topic: Material Flow Accounting
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