Size and Potential for Recycling in the EU

This Supplementary Material is intended to provide a detailed description of the material flow analysis (MFA) model and to report the main data sources utilized to characterize the lifecycle of Cu in the EU-28. More details on accounting equations can be found in [1,2]. As shown in Figure S1, lifecycle processes of a substance are linked by materials flows that describe the transformation from primary forms to finished goods and recycling: the rigorous definition distinguishes between imports and exports for flows crossing the system boundaries (i.e., the EU-28 in this study), and inputs and outputs for those entering or leaving a process. Quantifying flows and stocks is carried out in accordance with the law of the conservation of matter by a material balance of flows for every single process [3].