MATERIALS BALANCE: A hard and fast rule that the total amount of stuff removed from the natural environment will be eventually returned, probably as pollution. This is based on a fundamental law of physics that says material can be neither created nor destroyed, but only transformed. During any given period (such as a year) the quantity of materials returned to the environment is the difference between the quantity extracted and the quantity used by the economy. See also | environment | pollution | natural resources | pollution types | scarcity rent | Pigouvian tax | recycling | Coase theorem | command and control | pollution rights market |
