Strategic use of materials

The environmental impact of the consumption of an average EU citizen is outside the safe operating space for humanity, as concluded by the JRC in 2023. 

Resource and material extraction and processing are responsible for:

• 90% of global biodiversity loss and water stress; 
• 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions;
• Over 30% of air pollution-related health impacts.

At Zero Waste Europe, our mission is to redesign our relationship with resources and enable systems that do not generate waste in the first place, putting communities’ wellbeing at the centre. Over the years, we advocated to move away from waste incineration to prevention, reuse, and recycling of products and materials. The next frontier is to reduce material use whilst ensuring wellbeing for all – in other words, creating the conditions to live well within planetary boundaries.

Putting material and resource consumption on the agenda

The circular economy has so far focused on increasing material efficiency – i.e. maximising the value we get out of the materials that we use in the economy. While essential, this approach falls short of addressing our ever-increasing consumption of materials and resources and its adverse effects on the environment and human health.

 So far, the necessary overall reduction of materials and resources used in the economy has been overlooked by EU policymakers. To avoid the rebound effect of increased resource efficiency, we advocate for combining circularity and sufficiency strategies in all sectors. Moreover, Europe’s strong dependence on the import of materials from abroad makes it vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and infringes its strategic autonomy. Zero Waste Europe, therefore, makes the case for the strategic use of materials in our economy.

Zero Waste Europe is also part of the European resource use reduction taskforce, an informal group gathering leading environmental organisations working on solutions. Together we have called on European leaders to introduce a framework for Sustainable Resource Management in the EU with binding, science-based binding reduction targets. These recommendations are in line with proposals from EU Member States for sustainable resource management, expressed in the mid-term review of the 8th Environmental Action Programme.

In 2023 and 2024, we published two studies together with Eunomia Research & Consulting and other partners, underscoring that reducing material use is pivotal to achieving the 1.5°C climate target. The papers conclude that only a long-term revision of the Waste Framework Directive into a “Materials Framework Directive” or “Resource Framework Directive” can guide the continued reduction in raw material consumption to deliver decarbonisation: 

•  “Reimagining the Waste Framework Directive,” Zero Waste Europe, 2023
• “Managing materials for 1.5°C – an EU level regulatory framework for a low-carbon material economy”, Zero Waste Europe, 2024

Europe has turned a blind eye to the staggering amount of resources needed to keep our economy going – resources that are mostly extracted in the Global South. To place our economy back within planetary boundaries and become more resilient to supply chain shocks, we demand targets for material use reduction.