Page 229 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

4.5 Impact Categories, Impact Indicators and Characterisation Factors 213

Table 4.6 Systematics of Resources 91)

Type of resources Examples

Abiotic finite Minerals, fossil raw materials
a
Abiotic regenerative Groundwater, surface (fresh) water; oxygen ; not however:
fossil groundwater
Biotic finite Tropical wood from primary forests, species threatened by
extinction
Biotic regenerative Wild plants, wild animals (e.g. Sea fish); not however:
agricultural and forestry products and fish from fish farms,
since these products are generated within the technosphere.

a As far as not irreversibly chemically bound.

fossil fuels), but ‘only’ imply contamination or dispersion (a kind of entropy
increase). It is not always easy to distinguish between these two usage types of
resources and at the same time to prevent the method of impact assessment getting
intolerably complicated. We will try to follow a path in between.
According to SETAC Europe 92) (see Table 4.4) this group includes:
• abiotic resources,
• biotic resources and
• land use.

The first two impact categories can be divided into finite and regenerative resources,
depending on their regenerative capacity (Table 4.6).
As indicated by their name and common to all categories of this group, inventory
data to be classified and characterised occur at the input side. They thus concern raw
materials and similar factors in the ecosphere, which are used, dispersed, stained
or converted for the production of chemicals, materials and goods, fuels, and so on.
As the overarching notion for these different uses, the expression ‘consumption’
is employed, that often does not strictly apply physically or chemically. However,
it does apply if the appropriate raw materials are regarded as economic goods (see
e.g. the commonly used expression ‘energy consumption’ which physically makes
no sense). 93) The characterisation of resource consumption is one in view of the
scarceness, regeneration ability and significance for the ecosystems.
With regard to abiotic resources with the exception of water, a primarily anthro-
pocentric view cannot be overlooked : The exhaustion of oil, coal and ore mines
94)
would have a greater impact on humankind than on the earth’s ecosystem and its
subsystems. As for the use of biotic resources, water and land, humans and nature

91) Kl¨ opffer and Renner (1995).
92) Udo de Haes (1996) and Udo de Haes et al. (1999a,b, 2002).
2
93) (Apart from Einstein’s E = mc .).
94) Udo de Haes (1996).