materialsuse

Materialsuse is an interdisciplinary concept that examines how materials are used, managed, and recovered throughout the life of products and infrastructure. It covers material selection, processing, performance, consumption patterns, maintenance, and end-of-life handling with the aim of maximizing resource efficiency and minimizing environmental impact.

The field focuses on understanding material flows from extraction to production, use, reuse, and waste. Core activities include designing for durability and ease of disassembly, selecting materials with lower environmental burdens, and implementing strategies for reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and substitution when feasible. Analytical methods such as material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) quantify material stocks and losses and compare environmental footprints across alternatives.

Applications span construction, consumer electronics, automotive, packaging, and general manufacturing. Benefits include reduced resource depletion, lower waste generation, energy savings, and reduced emissions. Challenges include incomplete data on material compositions and end-of-life pathways, variability in material quality, fragmented supply chains, higher upfront costs for recovery, and trade-offs between performance, safety, and recyclability.

Emerging trends emphasize the circular economy, digital material passports and traceability, design for disassembly and modularity, increased use of recycled content, and policy measures that promote extended producer responsibility and recycling rates.