The overriding principle is that environmental policy must be comprehensive and fully integrate all relevant parties and concerns. The NEPP looks not only at specific pollution sources, but their relationship to relevant ecological, social, and economic systems. Use of the best applicable technology to control pollution and other environmental harms. Prevention of all unnecessary waste. Isolation, management, and control of wastes that cannot be processed.
Environmental considerations are to be integrated into the actions of all responsible groups.
Waste flows and pollution should be reduced at all stages. The ultimate goal of Dutch environmental policy is to secure a sustainable environment, both within the Netherlands and throughout the world. Since the Netherlands is a highly industrialized consumer society, it measures sustainability primarily through levels of pollution and waste production. The main socio-economic objectives should either be integrated into environmental plans or recognized as incompatible with environmental objectives within the context of sustainable development. Capacity Specific actions are guided by the concepts of forecasting, carrying capacity, and backcasting.