Switzerland needs 87 million tons of material a year
Empa researchers have recorded the entire material and energy flows in Switzerland. According to this, 87 million tons of material are required for the Swiss economy every year. Consumer behavior and emissions were also examined.
Researchers at the Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute ( Empa ) investigated the question: How much does Switzerland consume? The basis was the mass and energy flows for the year 2018. According to the press release , this means that domestic material consumption is 87 million tonnes net per year. That is the mass of material needed to keep the Swiss economy running. This includes, for example, buildings, streets, cars and electricity.
As an example of outflowing masses, the announcement mentions that 12 million tons end up in the final disposal. The export in the research year 2018 amounted to 18 million tons. A large part of the incoming material remains in the system and allows the "warehouse" to grow by 52 million tons per year (as of 2018). The total weight of the “material warehouse” in Switzerland is around 3.2 billion tons.
The study is the fourth part of the MatCH project. The abbreviation stands for "Material and energy resources and associated environmental impacts in Switzerland". The project was launched in 2013 on behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and extended over several stages. The first part recorded all material and energy flows in the construction sector; the second covered mobility. And part three was devoted to the production and consumption of the other goods that are imported, obtained domestically and exported.
The work now presented is part four, which brings a synthesis of the findings from the three previous ones. The team also analyzed how the behavior of the population affects greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to per capita consumption data, the researchers also analyzed personal behavior. The message states that if all residents behaved like the fifth of the population with the most exemplary lifestyle, Switzerland's total greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 16 percent. If, on the other hand, everyone behaved like the fifth with the least ecological lifestyle, emissions would rise by 17 percent.