raw materials

"The cost of raw materials for businesses continued to fall, once again driven by lower crude oil prices," he added.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson recently told ProPublica that the company’s chemical recycling process works, and that it has “processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials, keeping it out of landfills.”

The Spanish came to the New World in search of gold, Russians for pelts, others for spices, raw materials, fishing grounds, etc., etc.

It also said more raw materials, such as rice, could be used, delivering a "10-fold reduction" in food waste, alongside new packaging lines and upgraded production lines.

It’s a complicated question, involving supply costs, crop yields, public policy, the availability of raw materials, supply chain issues and animal and plant disease, to name a few factors.