With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, China faces a number of serious environmental problems that significantly affect economic and social sustainable development. In this paper we quantify the CO2, SO2, NOx, COD (chemical oxygen demand) and ammonia-nitrogen emissions resulting from household consumption, based on an input-output model used to identify which consumption items appear mainly responsible for environmental impacts and which consumption items can lead to different environmental impacts in 2007. Using a 2007 input-output table, we found that CO2, SO2, COD, NOx, and ammonia-nitrogen emissions from household consumption in 2007 accounted for approximately 42.17%, 33.67%, 33.11%, 28.83% and 30.38% of China's total emissions, respectively. Each environmental impact arises from the consumption of a mix of goods and services. "Agriculture" and "Food and Tobacco Manufacture" consumption contributed more than 50% of COD and ammonia nitrogen emissions; "Electricity and Heating Generation" and "Food and Tobacco Manufacture" accounted for more than 50% of SO2, NOx and CO2 emissions. We classified consumption items into different types, with Type 1 and Type 3 countering each other, illustrating a trade-off between stimulating household consumption, mitigating COD and Ammonia nitrogen emissions and mitigating CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.