Economic activities put pressure on the environment, so resource efficiency has been defined to reveal the environmental efficiency of the economy. Resource efficiency is the ratio of gross domestic product to domestic material consumption. The amount of domestic material consumption is calculated by adding the annual amount of domestic raw material consumed and the physical import amount and subtracting the physical export amount.
Compared to 2000, resource efficiency increased by 35% in the EU-27 economy and 36% in Turkey between 2000 and 2020 and reached the values of 2.2 €/ton and 1.6€/ ton, respectively [5].
GRAPH 5- RESOURCE EFFICIENCY BY YEARS
Source: EUROSTAT, Resource productivity statistics,2020.
When comparing the resource efficiency indicator across countries, GDP (code: RP_ PPS) in purchasing power standards should be used.
Domestic material consumption per capita represents the level of efficient use of production and inputs used for the national economy. While domestic material consumption (DMC) per capita in Turkey was 9.5 tons in 2000, that increased to
12.1 tons in 2018. The average per capita domestic material consumption in EU-28 countries was 15.5 tons in 2000 and decreased to 13.4 tons in 2018. However, the level of domestic material consumption varies from around 9 tons per capita (Italy, UK, Spain, Netherlands and Croatia) to about 30 tons per capita (Finland, Norway and Estonia) in European countries.
Worldwide material consumption is equivalent to the world domestic material consumption when the global trade balance is zero. It was 12.1 tons per capita in 2018 and steadily increased from 8.8 tons per capita in 2000[6].
Per capita domestic material consumption in Turkey was below the average of the EU- 28 countries as of 2018.
GRAPH 6- DOMESTIC MATERIAL CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA BY YEARS
Source:https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/env_ac_rp/default/table?lang=en
Looking at the distribution of domestic material consumption by material category, we find that consumption of non-metallic minerals accounts for almost half of the total material consumption in both Turkey and the EU-28 countries. Consumption of non-metallic minerals is influenced by the country’s construction investments, infrastructure investments (e.g. road networks) and population density. [7].
GRAPH 7- CONSUMPTION ACCORDING TO MATERIAL CATEGORY (Tons per capita)
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