European Environmental Bureau calls for legislation on resource efficient product design

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A report by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) has said that legislation should be introduced that makes products be designed in a resource efficient way.
Delivering Resource Efficient Products sets out why setting requirements on resource use would be politically timely and provide further benefits to businesses and consumers.
EEB policy officer for EU product policy Carsten Wachholz (pictured) said: “The [European] Commission has said it will issue a proposal on the circular economy by the end of the year which addresses product design.
“This report lays the path for doing just that. Ecodesign could push producers to design products so that more are easily repairable, longer-lasting and more recyclable.
“This would help cut waste, create millions of new jobs across the EU and reduce the impact our resource consumption has on the environment.
The report suggests amending the existing Ecodesign Directive on energy efficiency would be an appropriate way to introduce the legislation.
By extending the life of laptops, printers and washing machines would potentially result in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million tonnes.
The report highlights three ways in which the Ecodesign Directive could be used to make products more resource efficient.
These are:
• Identifying design requirement that support better repairability and durability of products
• Ensuring that selected materials in products are managed carefully from production to end-of-life, including options to use high shares of recycled content and support high quality recyclability
• Removing problematic or hazardous substances undermining the potential for reusing components or materials from products.

  1. View the report at http://www.eeb.org/index.cfm?LinkServID=EB5DE6FD-5056-B741-DBB2EBDF0E6E0AC5