Raw material

For other uses, see Raw Material (disambiguation).

"Feedstock" redirects here.

Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree

A raw material or feedstock is the basic material from which a product is manufactured or made, frequently used with an extended meaning. For example, 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 non-human species 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 labor or that has already undergone some alteration by labor. 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

References

• Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Part III, Chap. 7.