It is high time specific actions were taken in order to speed up the transition towards a circular economy. Such a transition requires the design of products to be more eco-responsible. According to a European Commission study, over 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined at the design stage1. That is why it is essential to start considering recyclability as a central requirement in the design stage of a product, equally important as the aspect or the performance of the product.
This applies to a great number of products placed on the market, but it is particularly relevant for those products that the European legislation classifies as “energy-related products” (electronic equipment, home appliances…), which have a considerable environmental impact because their production requires a large amount of natural resources (up to 70 kg for a smartphone, according to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency) and their life cycles tend to shorten. The recycling targets for these products (established by the European Union) are increased on a regular basis but without incorporating systematic criteria that facilitate the recycling of these products in parallel.
For many products, basic improvements in the design would greatly improve their recyclability: putting in place reversible fastening methods that do not require specific tools (products of certain brands can only be dismantled using proprietary tools), limiting the use of additives in plastics to make their recycling easier, rethinking the labelling of some of the components, particularly of batteries, so their identification and sorting is easier, etc.
Nevertheless, we observe that progress has been made when it comes to considering certain aspects linked to the circular economy at European level, particularly in the framework of regulatory obligations defined in the Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC): for certain categories of products, the European Commission has recently proposed to apply new ecodesign requirements that make the dismantling and depollution processes of certain products easier. In June 2018, the European Commission also published a roadmap on the European Union’s policies regarding products in the context of the circular economy.
In conclusion, apart from the need to design more recyclable products, it is even more important to guarantee a stable market for recycled materials, and particularly for plastics. In the framework of the European Strategy for Plastics, manufacturing companies are invited before September 2018 to make voluntary pledges to include a certain amount of recycled plastics in their products. Nevertheless, setting a minimum recycled content for products placed in the market would be a much more efficient measure.
1 Ecodesign your future – How ecodesign can help the environment by making products smarter, European Commission, 2012
