The raw materials are those raw materials used in the manufacturing processes (industrial, craft, etc.) for the production of garments, tools, and final goods. They are natural resources for which concession licenses are provided and, from an economic point of view, raw materials represent an input into the production process.
From this concept (which is, therefore, the basis of production), the concept of secondary material develops, which is the material recovered from the previous processing.
Of course, we have different definitions of raw material, depending on the context (product, geopolitical and accounting), type of use and origin.
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Types of Raw Materials
There are different ways to classify the different types of raw materials:
- renewables;
- non-renewable;
This classification is important because it allows us to understand where they come from and what the life cycle of the raw material is.
The renewable energy sources are made of animal or vegetable origin and can be regenerated at the end of each consumption cycle (determined with precise parameters for exploitation rates).
Among the most common renewable ones we find wood, meat and leather, plant tissues, agricultural products and renewable energy sources (solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, etc.), which remain the faster than others in the same field but, if you think about it, since the time of the barter, these resources represent the basis of our society.
Unlike renewable raw materials, non-renewable ones do not regenerate at the end of the consumption/production cycle. They are not infinite and this determines the continuous decrease of the available quantities.
Non-renewable raw materials are non-metallic minerals (pebbles or stones, for example, used for cutting stones such as marble, or in the production of cement and bricks), metals (such as iron, steel, stone silver or gold) and non-renewable energy sources (natural gas, coal, and oil).
There is also a classification that takes into consideration the characteristics of the material, or the productive sector that makes use of it in its industrial process. We can find energy raw materials, mineral raw materials, textile raw materials, and agricultural raw materials.
Some Important Raw Materials
One of the best known is certainly oil (that has a similar problem as the cooking oil!): this is extracted from the subsoil with special drills and transported, by pipelines, to refineries that transform it into gasoline or form the basis for the production of plastic materials.
Even wood, which is the plant tissue of shrub plants, is a widely used material and which developments and uses are documented from prehistory.
Some examples of vegetable raw materials are also cotton and linen, while silk and wool are of animal origin.
From gold to coffee, the world of raw materials is vast and very diverse.
Despite being one of the “objects” of which we think we are more familiar, as we have seen, the resources we discover a much wider world simply starting from the world to classify them.