ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the process connecting a European consciousness to the national level and the economic actors’ level. It focuses on the waste management policy driven by French governments and its evolution to tackle sustainability in a European context. The chapter presents the concepts of sustainability transition and Europeanisation. It shows how the waste management policy in France evolved from the 1975 Waste Act, mixing European requirements and domestic arrangements. The diffusion of the sustainability transition ideas reflects the importance transition has taken to address environmental issues. Member States can choose to operationalise public action by a set of rules and norms based on distinct instruments and the selected implementation of instruments shape singular domestic paths. Environment as a policy field emerged during the preparatory phase of the 1972 Stockholm Conference when economists identified the eco-development concept as an alternative form of economic development.
