Brussels, 14/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Commission is stepping up its work on the circular economy to help the EU turn its back on an economic system that wastes its resources and combine growth with job creation, innovation and competitiveness that is less environmentally damaging. The new proposals it is expected to put forward after having withdrawn its previous legislative package will not be presented until the end of the Luxembourg Presidency, much to the regret of the latter (see EUROPE 11113). Nonetheless, the outlines and substance of the action plan for the circular economy are now being sketched out and EUROPE has obtained a copy.
The Commission justified the above-mentioned withdrawal with a reference to the absence of a production section in the initial package, a shortcoming it intends to rectify. To make the European economy a genuinely circular one, the Commission believes that they need to work both on the conceptualisation of products and the production process, as well as on consumption, waste management, food waste and all the relevant industrial sectors. These factors constitute the outline of the draft action plan, “Closing the Loop”. It is currently in an interservice consultation phase and is framing the circular economy as the reconciliation of environmental and economic priorities that help the EU reduce its dependency on rare resources and create jobs in the areas of design, production, reusing, repairing and recycling products. In each area of action, the Commission is locating the barriers that can pose a problem to the emergence of a circular economy and is subsequently outlining measures it intends to advocate for getting over these problems.
On a level of conceptualisation, the Commission is seeking to provide incentives for producing more sustainable products that are easier to repair and recycle. To this end, it is planning on: an eco-conceptualisation work plan for the 2015-17 period; a proposal form tying the costs paid by producers in responsible systems to producers at real costs at the end of product life-cycle and recyclability (encouraging emphasis from the conceptualisation phase to the future recycling of products); establishing eco-conceptualisations criteria on the lines of those recently drawn up for electronic screens.
In an effort to promote extraction and production processes they generate less waste and promote the sustainable supplies of raw materials, the draft includes support for industrial producers that innovate (support for developing the reuse of industrial waste and bi-products, such as the reuse of CO2 for example).
At a level of consumption, it will be necessary to encourage the reuse and repair of products, as well as inform consumers about the environmental impact of products and support the contribution of high labour intensive sectors in the areas of re-use and repair as included on the EU agenda for employment and growth. The measures included are: the possible revision of the EU ecology label, in an effort to improve the identification of products and services that have less of an environmental impact during the life-cycle; including product reuse in the calculation of recycling targets in the proposal to revise legislation on waste; improved application in member states of the compulsory two-year product guarantee and submitting “consumer” legislation to a REFIT health check.
To guarantee that all materials of value are reinjected into the economy, the Commission is planning to: revise legislation on waste by setting out new binding recycling objectives and minimum conditions for responsible systems that include producers, so that manufacturers adopt a responsible attitude to the costs for processing their products; supervision of EU 28 legislation implementation; the adoption of measures to improve the identification of illegal transfers of waste and an initiative to optimise recovery of energy from nonrecyclable waste in the context of the Energy Union.
In an effort to stimulate the market in secondary raw materials for the transformation of waste into resources, the Commission is planning on the following measures: the elaboration of quality standards for materials and certification systems, submitting legislation on chemical products to a health check and assessing the possibilities for taking action at the interface between legislation on chemical products and those on waste, the revision of EU regulation on fertilisers, in an effort to develop a European market in organic fertilisers and products deriving from waste.
Sectoral action includes increasing the share of recycled plastics, reducing their discharge and incineration, reducing food waste (through the elaboration of a common indicator on food waste and guidelines for authorising through donations, the use of foodstuffs as animal feed and improving consumers' understanding of what is the date limit for consumption and end by dates); improving waste management quality in the construction/demolition business, devising buildings that promote the recycling of their component parts and improving the environmental performance of buildings. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)