Sustainable Non-Renewable Materials Management

In this chapter, we review the main aspects related to Sustainable Non-Renewable Materials Management. We start with the more general aspects of material management and its importance to firms and nations. We discuss relevant risks such as geopolitical constraints, availability, pricing as well as recent developments due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine–Russian War. We then explain the social–environmental challenges of mining and recycling and focus on criticality assessment and materials flow analysis concepts and tools. We discuss in detail how materials flow analysis can be utilized by firms and conclude with some policy relevancy, following key lessons summary. The chapter is designed to give an overarching view on the topic of materials management beyond the classic view and economic importance.