Sustainable products to be norm for consumers with new Regulation

A new law on sustainability requirements for a wide range of everyday household products has entered into force in the EU.

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) will enable requirements to be set with the aim to ensure products last longer, are easier to repair and recycle, contain fewer problematic chemicals and more recycled materials, and are more energy and resource-efficient. This can mean lower costs and less hassle for consumers.

It will encourage companies to bring more sustainable products to the EU market, provide them with a level playing field, and boost the competitiveness of sustainability frontrunners. It will also enhance the viability of remanufacturing, refurbishment, and recycling activities, which have significant job creation potential.

Consumers and the environment pay the price for badly designed and short-lived products. The ESPR builds on the success of the existing Ecodesign Directive, which has already helped EU households save over €200 per year on average mainly by making products more energy efficient.

The ESPR will now extend this approach to a much broader range of products, and enable far-reaching performance and information ‘ecodesign requirements’ to be set on a wide range of areas, such as:

Product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability
The presence of substances that hinder circularity
Energy and resource efficiency
Recycled content
Remanufacturing and recycling
Carbon and environmental footprints
Information requirements, including a Digital Product Passport

Rules for making products more sustainable under the EPSR will be rolled out progressively for individual product groups or for several product groups with similar characteristics. The rules will be tailored to the specific groups, for example, rules for smartphones, shoes or tyres will not be the same. They will be developed based on scientific evidence, economic analysis and stakeholder consultation, and once in place will apply to all those wanting to sell on the EU market.

To make sure everyone knows what to expect, and that companies have enough time to prepare, the Commission will publish multiannual working plans, listing the products and measures to be addressed. The first working plan will be adopted within nine months, and in addition to energy-related products is likely to include highly impactful products, such as clothes, furniture, steel, aluminium, tyres, and ICT products. The ESPR will also roll out new cross-cutting measures to reinforce sustainable consumption and production patterns for products, as well as to strengthen enforcement - a key element ensuring a level playing field on the Single Market.

For the first time in the EU, novel Digital Product Passport requirements will be launched for all products regulated under the ESPR. The ‘passport' will be a scannable tag on products, providing easy access to product sustainability information. This should help consumers make more sustainable product choices, prolong product lifetimes, and generate profits and jobs through circular business practices. It will also help authorities enforce the legal requirements more effectively.

The ESPR also contains new measures to end the immensely wasteful and environmentally harmful practice of destroying unsold consumer products, including potential obligations on companies to take measures to prevent this practice. In addition, a direct ban on the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear products will be introduced, with derogations for small companies and a transition period for medium-sized ones. Over time, other sectors could be covered by such bans, if needed. If large companies do destroy unsold products, they will need to inform publicly know how many, and why.

Next steps

Work will now focus on implementing the ESPR. One of the first steps will be for the Commission to establish the Ecodesign Forum, which will be the main arena for gathering stakeholder input in the ESPR process. The Commission will then consult on and adopt the first ESPR working plan.

Quotes

Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Maroš Šefčovič, said:

“Today we set the bar higher to ensure that resource and energy-efficient products become the norm on the EU market. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation is a world-leading initiative. Having products that are repairable, recyclable and increasingly made of recycled materials provides new business opportunities, creates innovative jobs and offers more value for consumers. We will now swiftly roll out Ecodesign product rules – starting with the products that have the biggest environmental impact and the biggest potential for energy savings and circularity.”

Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, said:

“EU rules have a proven track record of making everyday household products more energy efficient and have delivered around half of the EU’s energy savings, with a direct impact on consumers’ household bills. Energy efficiency measures are a concrete way for citizens to play an active role in the clean energy transition, and to directly benefit from it.”

Background

On 30 March 2022, the European Commission proposed an Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) as part of the Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan under the European Green Deal.

Products use up massive amounts of materials, energy and other resources and cause significant environmental impacts throughout their lifecycle, from the extraction of raw materials, to manufacture, transport, use and end of life. Half of global greenhouse gases and 90% of biodiversity loss are caused by extracting and processing primary raw materials. Negative environmental impacts include significant resource depletion, generation of greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution. A recent JRC study demonstrated that global planetary boundaries are close to or are already being surpassed in several impact categories. The EU needs to act now to reverse these trends.

The objective of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation is to make sustainable products the norm on the EU market and reduce their overall environmental and climate impacts. The ‘take-make-use-dispose' model can be avoided, and much of a product's environmental impact is determined at the design stage. The new Regulation will extend the existing Ecodesign framework in two ways: first, to cover the broadest possible range of products; and second, where appropriate, to broaden the scope of the requirements with which products are to comply.