Raw material
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A raw material or feedstock is something that is acted upon or used by human labor or industry, for use as the basis to create some product or structure. Often the term is used to denote material that came from nature and is in an unprocessed or minimally processed state. Latex, iron ore, logs, and crude oil, would be examples. The use of raw material by other species other than the human includes twigs and found objects as used by birds to make nests.
In Marxian economics and some industries, the term is used in the sense of raw material that is 'subject of labor', in other words, something that will be worked on by labour or that has already undergone some alteration by labour. Therefore, it does not apply exclusively to materials in their entirely unprocessed state, for instance dimensional lumber, glass and steel.
See also
- Material
- Biomaterial
- Commodity
- List of building materials
- Materials science
- Recycling
- Upcycling
- Downcycling
