The EU Commission wants minimum standards for energy consumption, durability and recyclability. A product pass should make it easier for consumers to make a purchase decision.
The average lifespan of a smartphone is 2.5 years according to German consumer protection – and that’s a rather generous estimate. Many products on the market are ready for the garbage after a short period of time. The good news: As part of the prestige project “Green Deal”, Brussels wants to break this expensive and environmentally fatal cycle of new purchases and throwing away with various legislative proposals. Yesterday, Wednesday, the EU Commission presented a whole package of measures aimed at making all physical products on the EU market, with the exception of food and medicines, longer lasting, more environmentally friendly and recyclable. Member States and the EU Parliament still have to approve the measures. “Die Presse” summarizes what is planned.
What specific measures does the EU Commission propose?
Be it laptops, furniture or clothing, more durable products that can be repaired, recycled and reused should become the norm in the EU. At least that’s what the EU Commission wants. Specifically, the Brussels authority should be given the right to set minimum standards, for example with a view to durability, energy consumption or repair requirements for almost all goods in the EU internal market. According to Brussels, the initiative should have a positive effect on the environment because pollution and resource consumption are reduced. A look at the current figures shows an urgent need for action: only about 40 percent of electronic waste is recycled in the EU, while in Austria it is about half.
As a first step, the Commission wants to focus on product categories such as furniture, mattresses, tires, cleaning products, paints, lubricants and intermediate products such as iron, steel and aluminum, as these “have a major impact on the environment and have great potential for improvement”, like the authority explains.
There is a separate EU strategy for textiles, the consumption of which has the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change after food, housing and mobility. Eleven kilograms of textiles are thrown away per person in Europe every year, and worldwide one truckload of textiles is dumped or incinerated every second. Sustainability should therefore also become the standard in this sector. By 2030, the EU wants to set minimum standards for the use of recycled fibers for all textile products that can be purchased in the internal market and make the products more durable through new quality requirements. Under the motto “fast fashion is out of fashion”, the consumer should be encouraged to give preference to high-quality materials over the goods of cheap fashion chains. This should also have a positive effect on your own wallet in the long term.
What does all this mean for the consumer – and for the economy?
In order to offer the consumer a quick and easy overview, a separate pass (“Digital Product Passport”) is planned, which includes components, recycling options and other important information about a product. This should make it easier for consumers to consciously choose environmentally friendly products. The Commission also hopes to create jobs in maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, repair and the sale of second-hand goods. According to estimates, these activities create 30 to 200 times more jobs than landfill and incineration.
The companies themselves are likely to position themselves to weaken the Commission’s proposals through targeted lobbying – and thus avoid overly strict regulation.
What are the expected environmental consequences of the proposals?
The Commission calculates that the existing ecodesign regulations – i.e. rules for energy-using products – have led to a significant reduction in EU-wide energy consumption. In 2021 alone, energy costs of 120 billion euros were saved. According to the Brussels authority, the new rules could also reduce 132 million tons of primary energy by 2030, “which corresponds to around 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas and thus almost all of the EU’s Russian natural gas imports”.
What are the reactions so far?
In the European Parliament, which has to find a compromise on the Commission’s proposals with the member states, the opinion is divided: “We have long been demanding that sustainable and safe products must be the norm on the EU internal market and be accessible and affordable for the entire population should,” says SPÖ MP Günther Sidl. The more business-friendly EPP group is said to be less enthusiastic. Excessive bureaucratic requirements are an enemy of innovation, it says there.