Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization

imported natural gas are high, is naphtha derived by the distillation of crude oil.

Calculating the amounts of metals that will become available for recycling depends on estimates of the average life-time of products.

PVC production and incineration emit dioxins, and phthalates, plasticizers used to soften normally rigid PVC,

Resmelting of steel is by far the largest recycling effort in overall mass terms, an achievement made easier by the ubiquitous availability of the material, by the ease of its separation (magnetic sorting), and by its perfect recyclability: resmelted material retains all physical properties of the original metal.

rough wool cloth was spun and woven more than 10 000 years ago; woolly sheep were domesticated about 8000 years ago but it took at least another 2000 years before the appearance of first woven wool fabric (Broudy, 2000).

generating stations, is not a consumptive use because all but a small (evaporated) fraction of that water becomes available almost instantly

their feedstock) required more than 100 GJ/t of NH3, and pre-World War II coal-based plants still needed about 85 GJ/t. Post-1950, the shift to natural gas and low-pressure reforming using reciprocating compressors lowered the rate to 50–55 GJ/t.

In contrast, mechanical pulping needs less than 1.1 t of wood per ton of pulp and it is a large consumer of electricity.

all affluent countries its per capita consumption has declined, but aggregate demand has risen substantially as wood retained and actually expanded all but a few of its traditional markets.