‘With almost 3 tonnes per capita per year, Europe is the continent with the highest net-imports of resources.’

‘Since 1950, international trade of raw materials has increased 6% each year in monetary terms: a root cause for CO2 emissions (transport, infrastructure)’

‘Since 1980 there has been a relative decoupling of economic growth from resource use. (GDP growth was higher than growth in resource extraction). But, the absolute amount of resource extraction and resource use is still rising at a global level. De-coupling is not enough, as economic growth reduces the effect.’

‘The obsolete mobile stockpile in 2005 weighed at least 56,000 tonnes and consisted of 7,900 tonnes copper, 178 tonnes silver, 17 tonnes gold, 7,4 tonnes palladium and 180 kg platinum.  Less than one % of this material is recycled, due to low recycling rates for mobile phones.’

From: Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) (2009) Overconsumption? Our Use of the World’s Natural Resources. Global 2000, Friends of the Earth Europe.