Electronic waste – Photo by Curtis Palmer
(BRUSSELS) – MEPs in committee called for an end to Europe’s current “take-make-dispose” economy Wednesday, with binding targets for recycled content and an EU policy on sustainable non-energy-related products.
The EU needs clear policy objectives to achieve a carbon-neutral, environmentally sustainable, toxic-free and fully circular economy by 2050 at the latest, said the MEPs.
MEPs want the current linear “take-make-dispose” economy transformed into a truly circular economy, based on a series of key principles such as preventing waste and reducing energy and resource use.
Up to 80% of products’ environmental impact is determined at the design phase. The global consumption of materials is expected to double in the next forty years, while the amount of waste generated every year is projected to increase by 70% by 2050. Half of total greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress, come from extracting and processing resources.
MEPs say products should be designed in a way that reduces waste, harmful substances and pollution, and protects human health. The consumer benefits of a circular economy should be made clear, they say.
They want science-based binding 2030 EU targets for materials use and consumption footprint, covering the whole lifecycle of each product category placed on the EU market. To this end, they urge the Commission to introduce in 2021 harmonised, comparable and uniform circularity indicators for material and consumption footprints.
The Environment Committee also calls on the Commission to propose product-specific and/or sector-specific binding targets for recycled content, while ensuring the performance and safety of the products concerned and that they are designed to be recycled.
MEPs have given their backing to the Commission’s intention to broaden the scope of the Ecodesign Directive to include non-energy-related products. New legislation, which should be put forward in 2021, should set horizontal sustainability principles and product-specific standards so that products placed on the EU market perform well, are durable, reusable, can be easily repaired, are not toxic, can be upgraded and recycled, contain recycled content, and are resource- and energy-efficient.
The report will now be put to the vote during the Parliament’s February plenary sitting.
Further information, European Parliament
