Abstract:
How to tackle environmental damage from the throwaway society is one of the defining questions of the twenty-first century. By establishing a circular economy, we can encourage and support sustainable production and consumption. These essays by an international group of leading scholars from a range of disciplines analyse policies and legal instruments and challenge mainstream assumptions, from the choice of a policy mix to the actual effect of imposing standards on the market, and from corporate objectives and priorities to the use of precaution in assessing particularly harmful substances. Each chapter contributes to a better understanding of the current policy and regulatory framework in Europe and identifies the challenges and opportunities ahead.
The book breaks new ground by examining how product policies can contribute to important objectives and visions, such as the aims of the circular economy. It is a must-read for researchers as well as for policymakers and practitioners.
Selected reviews:
‘This book is a welcome contribution to our understanding of product policy. It provides a systematic analysis of key elements of product policy - law, regulation, trade issues - and sophisticated exploration of the challenges to this approach to environmental policy. While product policy is most advanced in Europe, the integration of life-cycle thinking is growing worldwide. This book will be very useful to researchers, policy makers, and activists grappling with the many dimensions of product policy including eco-design, extended producer responsibility, chemicals in products, and eco-labels, and their many intersections.'
Reid Lifset - editor of Journal of Industrial Ecology and Yale University, Connecticut
‘This book makes a compelling case for strengthening product design in order to minimise environmental impacts through the life cycle. From energy efficiency requirements to durability, reparability and recyclability standards, it explains how product-oriented environmental laws can help solve some of the most pressing issues of our time.’
Jeremy Wates - Secretary General of the European Environmental Bureau
‘This edited volume truly engages the reader with its thoughtful treatment of environmental product policies. The book skilfully interweaves topical legal and policy considerations in its exploration of major themes and cases in this field, which the circular economy discourse has brought (back) to the forefront of developments.’
Harri Kalimo - Jean Monnet Professor, Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Contact
Ph.D Eléonore Maitre-Ekern
(Cover page): Preventing Environmental Damage from Products. An Analysis of the Policy and Regulatory Framework in Europe
(Cambridge University Press).