A planetary atlas of material flowsOpening this view…
Start with an everyday object or material.
Jump directly to a material, regional account or named facility.
The material foundations of cities. Explore minerals, cement and construction, then follow what happens as buildings are repaired, replaced and demolished.
Quarrying supplies aggregates and raw materials for cement production. These are different products and processes.
Extraction changes land and leaves material outside the saleable product.
Construction combines materials into infrastructure. Concrete and reinforcing steel are distinct recoverable streams.
Construction generates offcuts, spoil and other residues.
Repair and longer use retain the material already in place. Annual waste figures do not count everything still standing.
Future removal depends on the structure’s lifetime.
Selective removal and separation can preserve components and improve the quality of recovered materials.
Mixed and contaminated fractions are harder to recover.
Concrete can be processed into aggregate. Recovering aggregate does not reverse cement production or recreate the original building.
Residual material still needs treatment or disposal.
Explore the local operations and regional systems that collect, transform and recover this material.
Checking available records…
A large part is still in use in structures and products. Other material is buried, burned, dispersed or recovered. “Waste generated this year” and “material accumulated over time” measure different things.