El flujo de materiales y el desarrollo económico en España: un análisis sobre desmaterialización (1980-2004)

Material flow analysis (MFA) is a means of measuring the social metabolism, or physical dimensions of a society’s consumption, and can be taken as an indirect and approximate indicator of sustainability. Material flow accounting can be used to test the dematerialisation hypothesis, the idea that technological progress causes a decrease in total material used (strong dematerialisation) or material used per monetary unit of output (weak dematerialisation). This paper provides the results of a material flow analysis for Spain for the period from 1980 to 2004. In addition, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is analysed in this paper, using material consumption as an indicator of global environmental impact. The analysis reveals that neither strong nor weak dematerialisation took place during the period analysed. Although the population did not increase considerably, materials mobilised by the Spanish economy (Direct Material Input, or DMI) doubled, surpassing GDP growth. In addition, Spain became more dependent on external trade in physical terms. In fact, its net imports more than doubled during the period in terms of weight.