The Environmental Services Association (ESA) has published a report that highlights the need for the European Union to do more on sustainable product design.
It has published Towards a Resource Efficient Europe that calls on the EU to require key sectors of the economy to ensure products are made more durable, repairable, reusable, and/or recyclable based on the principle of producer responsibility.
ESA immediate past chairman Ian Goodfellow said: “The waste and resource management industry makes an important contribution to resource efficiency, green growth, and to employment, which is not always fully recognised.
“We would like to see more work being done on improving product design, so that those harder to recycle (and mechanically separate) composite products and materials do not end up in landfill.
“While this will be challenging, it can also create market opportunities for companies that are enterprising enough to design their products to take account of what will happen to them after that have been used and discarded.
“We believe that the policies set out in the ESA’s EU policy manifesto are urgently needed if the waste and resource management industry is to play its full part in helping the European economy recover from recession, and achieve green economic growth, while protecting people and the environment. Our industry should be at the heart of the European debate on how to achieve these shared goals.”
