Employment effects of waste management policies

The need to integrate environmental issues into an overall sustainability framework has been underlined most recently in the Sustainable Development Strategy. The link between environment and employment has been made on various occasions, e.g. in the Communication on Environment and employment (COM/97/0592). There are many calls to use environmental policy to support employment creation and equally many claims that high environmental standards destroy employment. Seldom, however, are these claims substantiated by analysis. This study intends to bring more clarity on the links between employment and environmental issues, based on the example of waste management policy.