Sustainable Products: the EU initiative for circularity-proof products

New EU initiative on sustainable products: a package of proposals inspired by the Ecodesign Directive and which will now be discussed by the Council and the European Parliament.

The ambitious goal is to “make sustainable products the norm in the EU”, halving municipal waste by 2030. But how? Outlining measures to reduce waste in sectors such as textiles, construction and electronic equipment, which so far have not been addressed at a European level. Circular economy policies are not new in the EU, but until now the focus has been mainly on the end-of-life of products. On the contrary, the action plan for the circular economy shifts the focus to the entire life cycle of a product.

With the new proposals on Sustainable Products, the Commission presents the tools necessary to move to a truly circular economy, namely: dissociated from dependence on energy and resources, more resilient to external shocks and more respectful of nature and people’s health. In addition to this, the EC is committed to promoting circular business models and even more to empowering consumers in the green transition by introducing a new right to information on the durability and repairability of products, such as the prohibition of greenwashing and planned obsolescence.