Raw material consumption increases once again – to 16.1 tonnes per capita and year
The German Environment Agency (UBA) is urging a reform of European regulations on value added tax (VAT) to promote a reduction of raw material consumption. UBA's President Maria Krautzberger says: "Whatever conserves resources must be made cheaper. The member states need more possibilities to promote efficient products through a reduced VAT rate. The EU has already approved this practice for repair services of products such as bicycles or clothing but unfortunately not for items such as electrical and electronic equipment. This has to change." According to the latest Use of Natural Resources Report by UBA, raw material consumption in Germany has decreased by a total 17 percent since 2000 but has again crept up in recent years. Statistically speaking, every person in Germany consumes 16.1 tonnes of raw materials per year – 10 percent higher than the European average.
Germany consumes some 1.3 billion tonnes of fossil fuels, minerals, ores and biomass per year. UBA's Use of Natural Resources Report claims that the majority of raw material consumption is non-metallic minerals (45%), fossil fuels (29%) and biomass (21%). Although raw material consumption in Germany is becoming more and more efficient thanks to industry efforts and total raw material productivity has increased by 26% since 2000, Germany has an excessively high level of raw material consumption compared to other countries: 10% higher than the average in Europe, and even 100% higher than the global average. More than half of the raw materials consumed for the production of goods is sourced from abroad.