and limiting releases to the environment. Even in the rare cases where this approach makes sense, it is negated by economic growth. What is more appropriate is determining the right materials for the right situation, and making sure that no substances are used where they shouldnt be. Many forms of packaging, for example, are made of materials that will outlive the materials they are enclosing; to the degree that packaging is even needed in a rational world, most of it should be made of biological nutrients or what Hawken (1993, p. 67-69) has called consumables, which can be composted. Clothing should also be compostable; something it cant be today because of the widespread use of toxic dyes. The sealed technical loops of more dangerous substances should, of course, become smaller and smaller, since eventually all materials will have to be returned to nature and we can never completely avoid accidental releases to the environment. In the case of many existing industrial materials that are both toxic and persistent, they should be banned or phased-out as soon as possible. In Chapter VI, I will deal with product stewardship systems that can implement extended producer responsibility (EPR) that can create strong pressures for producers to make their products out of benign materials. Again, it is worth repeating that dematerialization and detoxification work hand-in-handbecause the task of detoxifying production is far easier when the absolute amount of materials circulating is reduced. The same EPR incentives that encourage design for disassembly and reuse also encourage the use of healthy materials.