On Wednesday March 30th, the European Commission presented a comprehensive package of initiatives to promote the circular economy and extend the life of products, so that they can be easily repaired when they break down and their components are reused as much as possible when they go to the trash.
“We want fast fashion to go out of fashion,” European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius said. He was clear in the EU’s intention to boost a more sustainable economy by 2030. The Commissioner considered that “people are tired of products that break as soon as the warranty expires and are very difficult to repair, or clothes that tear after a few washes”. Citizens are demanding “that they last longer and are cheaper to fix”.
The legislative package, which is structured in three main blocks, starts with a proposal to revise the Regulation of the Ecodesign Directive to address the life cycle of all products from the design phase, where the Commission identifies that 80% of the environmental impact is determined, and thus print a more sustainable character throughout the value chain.
The proposal aims to impose specific requirements not only for energy efficiency, but also for sustainability. But to establish them, the Commission has set up a “working group” that will be in contact with industry and is expected to start defining the specifications by the end of the year.
“We will go from product group to product group, starting with those that are likely to have the greatest environmental impact, and each group will have different characteristics,” explained Sinkevicius, who specified that it will not affect food and medicines but will affect intermediate products such as steel, i.e. around 65% of the products that generate CO2.
We want sustainable products to become the norm on the European market
Frans Timmermans, EU Green Deal chief
This revision goes hand in hand with a desire to expand the information available to consumers, reinforcing the labeling rules and creating an environmental “digital passport” that clearly indicates how to repair or recycle the object in question.
Brussels also wants public authorities to lead by example in tenders where incentives for sustainable products are introduced and, incidentally, to avoid a fragmentation of the EU single market, as some countries have started to legislate at national level. “We are not creating barriers, we are creating the conditions for the sustainable development objectives to be achieved,” said the Lithuanian commissioner.
The second part of the circular economy package is a document that sets the path for the textile sector to undertake a transition for the 2030 horizon as that industry is the fourth largest contributor to climate change – after food, housing and mobility – and the third in water and land use.
Only 1% of textile products are of recycled origin, which means that each European throws away 11 kilos of clothing a year, a briefing by the European Environment Agency shows. Compared with other consumption categories, textiles caused in 2020 the third highest pressures on water and land use, and the fifth highest use of raw materials and greenhouse gas emissions. Per average person in the EU, textile consumption required 9 cubic meters of water, 400 square meters of land, 391 kg of raw materials, and caused a carbon footprint of about 270 kg. The vast majority of the resource use and emissions took place outside of Europe.
The briefing also looks at how circular business models and design can reduce the negative impacts from textile production and consumption by retaining the value of textiles, extending their life cycles and increasing the usage of recycled materials.
The proposal will bring changes to the way we produce and consume in the EU, and globally as well. We take action because the products we use every day need to last for first, second and third-hand users
Frans Timmermans, EU Green Deal chief
The Commission wants to encourage the use of recycled fibers free of hazardous chemicals and for the textile industry, where 75 % are women, to ensure that the social rights of workers are respected. In the future, Brussels will set eco-design requirements specifically for textiles and measures to prevent them from releasing microplastics, probably starting with household fashion products such as carpets or curtains, the commissioner explained.
For the time being, no specific recycling targets are set for the textile industry, but the Commission does not rule it out for later. Authorities in Brussels are asking fashion firms to launch fewer collections per year and to encourage reuse and repair services, inviting Member States to offer favorable tax treatment to these businesses.
The third part of the Commission’s proposals to boost a more circular economy linked to construction, a sector that employs some 25 million people in the European Union. Buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption in the EU, 36% of CO2 emissions, around 50% of resource extraction and consumption and more than 30% of total EU waste generated per year, according to Commission data.
The Commission sees great potential in the real estate business to move towards sustainability and will modernize the Construction Products Regulation in force since 2011. The goal is to standardize the use of materials that are “more durable, repairable, recyclable and easy to remanufacture” than a decade ago.
