Ending the take-make-waste economy is impossible without recycling unsold goods

The aim of this regulation is to make products more durable, reusable, upgradeable, repairable, recyclable and easier to maintain. It targets a range of products including textiles, footwear and intermediate products.

EuRIC, the voice of the European recycling industry, welcomes the agreement, which covers most of the main points of the recycling industry, such as: B. compliance with EU legislation by online marketplaces, the requirement for transparency when reporting the destruction of unsold goods and the introduction of the “digital product passport”.

However, we regret that the direct ban imposed on the destruction of unsold textiles and shoes does not take into account the role of recycling. Ending the take-make-waste cycle (linear economic model) is a significant step towards a circular economy, but is not possible without recycling companies. Equating recycling with destruction contradicts the very objectives of the Circular Economy Action Plan. The path to a circular economy should be defined by recycling processes that give materials a second life. Recycling is not destruction, but a process of resource recovery, which is crucial for extending the life cycle of materials. Therefore, we urge lawmakers to correct this miscalculation oversight and include recycling as a way to deal with unsold goods when reuse is not possible.

Although motor vehicles are excluded from the scope of the provisional agreement, their ecodesign provisions are addressed in other legislation, such as the regulation on circular economy requirements for vehicle design and on the management of end-of-life vehicles. In this context, EuRIC highlights the need for strong drivers such as targeted design for disassembly or recycled content targets for plastics and beyond to promote reuse and increase demand for circular and low-carbon material use in new cars.

We are now calling on the legislature to recognize recycling as an important pillar of the circular economy in the coming regulatory framework and to explicitly recognize its role as a recycling company, especially for unsold textiles and shoes.