A man stacks up sacks of plastic items sorted from piles of trash to be sold at recycling shops in Manila, the Philippines on Wednesday. Junkyards have been a source of income for urban poor in the country who live in communities near city dumpsites. Photo: AFP

The world is using up more than 100 billion tons of natural resources per year for the first time ever while global recycling of raw materials has fallen, according to a report released Tuesday.

The share of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass feeding into the global economy that is reused declined in two years from an already paltry 9.1 percent to 8.6 today, the Circularity Gap Report 2020 found.

"No country is meeting the basic needs of its citizens while also operating within the physical boundaries of our planet," said Marc de Wit, a director at the nonprofit Circle Economy and lead author of the report. 

The resources fueling the world economy increased over 8 percent in just two years from 93 billion tons in 2015 to 100.6 billion in 2017, the last year for which data is available.

Since 1970, the human population has doubled, the global economy has grown fourfold, and trade has expanded tenfold, a trajectory that relentlessly pushes up the demand for energy and resources.

Global use of materials is projected to balloon to 170-184 billion tons by mid-century, the report said.

To improve living standards while also protecting ecosystems that provide clear water, air and soil, the world must vastly boost the share of recycled natural resources, the authors said.

Wealthy nations, the authors note, consume 10 times more resources per person than in the developing world, and produce far more waste.

AFP