Glossary:Total Material Consumption (TMC)

Total Material Consumption (TMC)

Unlike TMC, DMC does not include so-called “hidden flows”, i.e. neither unused domestic extraction – e.g. mining waste or overburden – nor the indirect flows associated with the imported and exported goods. DMC has been used as a substitute for TMC because data on TMC is more difficult and time-consuming to compile, and hence less readily available than DMC data (because TMC e.g. includes estimates of mining overburden in third countries).