Material Flow Statistics of the A.C. of the Basque Country. 2005-2013

One of the characteristics of today's society is the production and consumption of goods, with the consequent environmental impacts due to the extraction, transformation, use and elimination of finite natural resources. Therefore, the evolution towards an economic model based on sustainable development involves reducing the material consumption of economies, especially in developed countries, decoupling the use of natural resources (water, materials and energy) and ecological services (nature's capacity to absorb waste and emissions) from economic growth. This process of reducing material consumption is known as dematerialization. It can occur both in relative terms, per unit of GDP, (weak dematerialisation), and in absolute terms (strong dematerialisation).