Development and application of material flow analysis in a national scale

Material flow analysis (MFA) is one of representative methods that can evaluate the sustainability of country, company and product in the environmental aspect. This study developed the MFA method in a national scale. It proposed the detailed direct and/or indirect material flow indicators per each life cycle stage in order to support the effective management of material in a national level. Also a case study on steel was conducted to analyze the feasibility of the proposed method. As a results of MFA on steel, the life cycle material flow chart and the indicator results on both resource productivity and domestic material input per capita from 1992 to 2004 were presented.