This is well below the city’s recycling average of 54 percent of all waste. Waste analyses show that a large volume of construction and demolition waste is produced in Amsterdam and that its reuse could be more effective only 33 percent of the soil and masonry from construction and demolition activities are recycled directly. These types of materials are mainly used by companies in the built environment. In addition, other minerals (such as glass, ceramics, cement, lime, plaster, tiles, bricks, concrete, asphalt, bitumen, graphite, non-metallic products, prefabricated structures) account for another four percent of total material consumption. Salt, sand, gravel and clay is another major material flow, accounting for a quarter of total material consumption. The environmental cost indicator (ECI) shows that Coal, lignite, natural gas and crude oil and Coke and petroleum products collectively account for up to 35 percent of the environmental costs of Amsterdam’s material consumption. Fossil materials such as natural gas and petrol are also the flows with the greatest environmental impact. In 2019, consumption was 10 percent higher than the average consumption of the previous four years. petrol) is a commodity flow that has increased in volume over time. That is enough material each year to fill the Johan Cruijff Arena fifteen times over.Ĭoke and petroleum products and Coal, lignite, natural gas and crude oil account for 37 percent of all material consumed in the city (DMC, direct material consumption). If the city is to meet its targets, consumption of primary, abiotic material would have to decrease annually by 2.3 billion kilograms starting in 2019. Despite many initiatives, the bulk of Amsterdam’s economy is still based on intensive primary material consumption. Current figures on material use in the city have yet to show a downward trend. Approximately 70 percent of material use in the Amsterdam economy involves primary, abiotic raw materials.

In other words, depending on whether we focus on local consumption or look at the entire economy, material use in Amsterdam is 15 or even 61 times higher than was previously thought.īy 2030, Amsterdam aims to halve primary, abiotic material. For consumption within Amsterdam, 18.5 billion kilograms of material was required. Based on new data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) it was found that 73.4 billion kilograms was needed for the entire Amsterdam economy in 2019. This estimate did not cover all the material in Amsterdam and relied on indirect data. The previous edition of the Amsterdam Circular Monitor reported that 1,216 kilotons (1.2 billion kilograms) of material was used annually in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam’s material use is significantly greater than previously calculated

Circle outline