ABSTRACT
A number of reports have suggested that the level of human population combined with the scale and nature of human economic activities are putting excessive, unsustainable pressure on natural systems. The human economic subsystem is growing both materially and in its use of energy and space. In order to reduce environmental impacts, dematerialisation needs to focus on the materials producing the greatest impacts, as well as reducing their quantity mobilised by the economy. However, the mobilisation of any material by the economy is the source of some environmental impact and if the related energy use and the whole life-cycle of the material are taken into account. Market transformation, sustainable consumption and production and extended producer responsibility are three broad policy approaches, which often involve a mixture of instruments that are intended to be mutually self-reinforcing. The most all-embracing of these approaches, which illustrates best the new emphasis on policy packages, is the European Commission's Integrated Product Policy.
