1. General overview

1.1 Environmental issues related to the ecological quality of products

Industry, agriculture, transport... all these sectors have a negative impact on the environment. And yet, what is the purpose of these activities if not to provide consumers with the goods and services they buy every day? So, for example, our waste is first and foremost our purchases. As for the "greenhouse effect", it results in part from the life cycle of the products we consume (manufacturing, distribution, disposal).

To gain a more detailed understanding of the impact of our consumption, the European Commission, through its Integrated Product Policy (IPP), has carried out various studies to characterize the average consumption of a European. Their summary for the period 1999-2002, entitled...