Material stocks of buildings, infrastructure, machinery and other short-lived products form the biophysical basis of production and consumption. They are a crucial lever for resource efficiency and a sustainable circular economy, as well as for climate change mitigation. Here, we provide a detailed country-level extract of economy-wide material stocks, as well as annual gross additions and annual end-of-life materials, for the EU27, from 1990 to 2016.

The MAT_STOCKS database is derived from the economy-wide, dynamic, inflow-driven stock-flow model of Material Inputs, Stocks and Outputs (MISO2) (Wiedenhofer et al. 2024). MISO2 covers 14 supply chain processes from raw material extraction to processing, trade, recycling and waste management, as well as 13 end-use types of stocks. Further information on the model and its system definition, as well as the model input data and assumptions and data processing procedures can be found in the accompanying peer-reviewed publication given below. The model code and exemplary input data can be found in the GitHub repository also linked to below. 

The MAT_STOCKS database for EU27, version 1.2., provides detailed results extracted from the modeling presented in (Wiedenhofer et al. 2024). The dataset here gives:

• Material stocks by end-uses: Civil engineering, Computers, Electrical equipment, Food packaging, Furniture, Machinery and equipment, Motor vehicles, Non-residential buildings, Other transport, Printed matter, Products nec and Residential buildings (S_10)
• Material stocks and flows by materials: aggregate downcycled, aggregate virigin, aluminium, asphalt, bitumen, bricks, chromium, concrete, copper, glass (container), glass (flat), iron / steel, lead, manganese, nickel, paper, plastic, tin and wood
• Flows: Gross Additions to Stocks (F_9_10) and End-of-Life/Waste potentials (F_10_11)
• 27 countries of EU
• 1990 to 2022

All units in kilotons. Parameter names are in accordance with the system definition given in the publication.

Changelog

This is an update of the v1.0 dataset. Major changes:

• Time series extended to 2022.
• Lifetimes, Enduses and Waste rates data extended with same values (Enduses were present until 2021).
• Import / Export from 1995 to 2022 added based on transformation of BACI data. This replaces earlier data present from 1995 to 2016 for some countries, adds additional material and trade for most countries. For some smaller island nations data is missing from 2017 onwards (formerly gained through disaggregation).
• Production updated from various databases. These partially replace some of the earlier production, mostly starting from 2012. For bricks and glass, limited new data was available, and data was mostly extrapolated.
• Recycling extended with new data, especially absolute EoL recycling flows for EU27.
• Fixed error in input creation workflow that prevented update of values in certain cases, recycling values are now properly interpolated between real data and MISO1 assumptions.
• Removed outliers in dataset where single values rise or drop by a factor of 4 compared to both their previous and following data point. Resulting gaps are filled by linear interpolation between remaining values. Only values above an absolute threshold of 2.5 kt are considered.

A publication of the full dataset with a detailled explanation of the changes is forthcoming.

Further information

This dataset complements the following scientific article, as well as a forthcoming report to the EEA:

Wiedenhofer, Dominik and Streeck, Jan and Wieland, Hanspeter and Grammer, Benedikt and Baumgart, Andre and Plank, Barbara and Helbig, Christoph and Pauliuk, Stefan and Haberl, Helmut and Krausmann, Fridolin, From Extraction to End-uses and Waste Management: Modelling Economy-wide Material Cycles and Stock Dynamics Around the World (2024). Journal of Industrial Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13575

The model code and its documentation are available on Github and Zenodo (see links below). For further information please see the publications. You can also contact Dominik Wiedenhofer dominik.wiedenhofer(a)boku.ac.at and Jan Streeck jan.streeck(a)boku.ac.at.

Funding

This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (MAT_STOCKS, grant agreement No 741950), and the European Union's Horizon Europe programme (CircEUlar, grant agreement No 101056810). Funded by the European Union. The data extract from the underlying detailed MAT_STOCKS database was compiled for the EEA project (No 3504/B2024/EEA.60014), as used in the forthcoming EEA report "Investigating material stocks in Europe". Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or granting authorities.