Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead

How our society uses materials is fundamental to many aspects of our economic and environmental future. If we want the United States to be competitive in the world economy, the sustainable use of materials must be our goal.

Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead suggests a roadmap for the future based on materials management—fulfilling human needs and prospering, while using less materials, reducing toxics and recovering more of the materials used. You can access documents related to the analysis done in The Road Ahead in the right hand side box.

The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) and the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) are close partners with EPA on this endeavor. Below are their endorsements of this report:

• February 3, 2010 Letter from ASTSWMO regarding Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead
• ECOS updated its Resolution 10-1 National Sustainable Materials Management on April 10, 2019.

• Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead (pdf) (1.36 MB)
• Appendix: Relative Ranking of Materials, Products, and Services Consumed in the U.S. Using Selected Environmental Criteria Technical Support Document (pdf) (2.55 MB)
• Memo from the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response to the ECOS Waste Committee (pdf) (395.71 KB)
• February 3, 2010 Letter from the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) regarding Sustainable Materials Management (pdf) (724.3 KB)