Waste Law and Circular Economy: Key Measures and Next Steps

[ad_1]

4

After a parliamentary shuttle of about six months, the anti-waste law has just been published in the Official Journal. Back on its flagship measures and the next key dates to wait.

Discussed by the Senate and the National Assembly since the summer of 2019, the law on the fight against waste and the circular economy (nicknamed “anti-waste law”) has just been promulgated in the Official Journal. If the text is primarily intended for large industrial companies seeking to fight against disposable plastic or systematic printing of receipts, it is also interested in the new technology industry.

And if the law was promulgated on February 10, many measures will not come into force for several years. A quick tour of the flagship technological measures and the next deadlines.

A repairability / durability index

This is the big piece of the law. Article 2 provides that a brand new “repairability index” will emerge. Based on the model of the energy label, this information must be given (and free of charge) to any buyer of“Electrical and electronic equipment”.

This index (which will take the form of a score from 1 to 10) will be a priori established “On the basis of a repository developed by Ademe”, but not only. The “Stakeholders”, that is to say the manufacturers, among others, will also take part in the discussion. The label must then be affixed on the packaging and at the point of sale. The index will become mandatory from January 1, 2021

In the same spirit, a second index, of “durability” this time, should arrive around 2024 and will give information on the lifespan and the reliability of the products.

Spare parts and occasion

The other major measure which targets electrical and electronic devices establishes the availability of information on the availability of spare parts. This will concern “Mobile phones, IT equipment, small and large household appliances, televisions, hi-fi systems” and even the furniture. Each manufacturer will be required to make spare parts available for at least five years within 15 working days.

Repairers will also have the obligation to offer spare parts “From the circular economy”, understand used parts. Just like the repairability index, this measure will take effect on January 1, 2021. On the subject of the occasion, the text will also extend the legal guarantee of conformity from six months to one year "For second-hand goods".

Repair and update

Always with the aim of making our objects last longer, the text will prohibit "Any technique, including software, by which a marketer aims to make impossible the repair or reconditioning of a device outside its approved circuits", establishing com facto a right to compensation which can only be circumvented in certain cases which concern “User safety or health”.

Manufacturers of electronic devices will also be required to provide updates for their products for a period of at least two years.

Awareness of the carbon footprint of digital activities

To help internet users become aware of the carbon footprint linked to their digital activities, from January 1, 2022, the ISPs “Will have to display information on the amount of data consumed, as well as the equivalent of the corresponding greenhouse gas emissions”.

According to the Ministry of Ecology, the goal is not only to make consumers feel guilty, but also to push access providers “To improve their CO2 balance”. Still it would be necessary to be able to correctly quantify digital pollution. With any luck, the recent fact-finding mission launched by the Senate will allow us to see a little more clearly.

An ambitious law with vague outlines

On the whole, the new constraints imposed by the law seem to go in the direction of the consumer, but it is regrettable that many details are not yet perfectly settled and that the calendar is spread over such a long period. The obligation to install a plastic microfiber filter on new washing machines, for example, will not apply until 2025. The article concerning the end of systematic printing of receipts will only come into force 'in 2023. A long time at the pace we are going.

[ad_2]