Improving resource efficiency is about improving the quality of life while limiting environmental degradation, using resources more wisely and changing patterns of production and consumption. In a world that is reaching the physical limits of consumption, ensuring the more efficient use of natural resources is essential. The fact that resource efficiency is one of the flagship elements of the European Union's framework programme Horizon 2020 is evidence of the increasing awareness of the urgent need to improve resource efficiency.

In the 30-year update to The Limits to Growth, Meadows et al. (2004: 236) call for action along two lines: improving the eco-efficiency of our present production and consumption patterns, and changing these patterns by influencing the underlying causes of overconsumption in society.

This chapter discusses a variety of strategies that could contribute significantly to improving overall resource efficiency, as indicated in Table 4.1. They range from steps that can be taken on the basis of current societal, economic and technological models and know-how, to more radical steps that may only be possible under new and different economic, political and societal structures.

Mining primary resources

For most natural resources the patterns are similar: the demand for commodities has increased sharply over the last three decades. The increase has been particularly spectacular for some specific minor elements, such as the rare earth elements that are used in high-tech applications such as cellphones and batteries. Although one might expect increased demand to lead to higher resource prices, thus providing an incentive for mining companies to intensify their output, this has evidently not happened. In relation to the mining of metals, there are a number of complicating factors:

• • The costs of extraction have increased over the years as sources have become smaller, more remote and less concentrated, requiring more energy, time and capital to develop.

• • Many metals are obtained as by-products of the extraction of other materials. An increase in the demand for a by-product therefore does not necessarily lead to increased supply, as this will depend on the market dynamics of the primary product. Mining companies are often not inclined to extract small quantities of minor elements from mining waste.