Improve the environmental sustainability of products and promote the transition to a circular economy, hereby significantly reducing waste generation.

Main legislation in place:

The Waste Framework Directive introduces measures to protect the environment and human health by preventing or reducing the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste and by reducing overall impacts of resource use and improving the efficiency of such use. Art. 9 on the prevention of waste is particularly relevant.

The Directive on Single-Use Plastics aims to prevent and reduce the impact of certain plastic products on the environment and promote the transition to a circular economy. 

The Batteries Regulation aims to protect the environment and human health by preventing and reducing the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste batteries, amongst other objectives.

The Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS) lays down rules on the restriction of the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), including the environmentally sound recovery and disposal of waste EEE. 

The Regulation on Persistent Organic Pollutants (PoPs) aims to phase out or restrict PoPs and includes provisions in Art. 7 on waste containing of contaminated by these substances.

The Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) aims to prevent or reduce the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and reduce overall impacts of resource use and improve the efficiency of such use.

The 8th Environment Action Programme aims amongst others for people to live well, within planetary boundaries in a well-being economy where nothing is wasted by 2050. 

The Regulation on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products aims to establish a framework to improve the environmental sustainability of products, including provisions to reduce waste generation.

The Directive on common rules promoting the repair of goods, notably Articles 5 and 7, lays down rules on the obligation to repair and online repair platform to encourage consumers to repair instead of replace broken goods and thereby reducing waste generation.

The Regulation on the packaging and packaging waste establishes requirements for the entire life cycle of packaging as regards environmental sustainability and labelling, requires all packaging to be recyclable and sets mandatory targets for waste reduction. 

Legislation proposed:

The Commission proposal for Regulation on circularity requirements for vehicle design and management of end-of-life vehicles aims to lay down circularity requirements on vehicle design and production related to reusability, recyclability and recoverability and the use of recycled content.

Other policy instruments:

The Circular Economy Action Plan aims to put in place measures to reduce waste.

The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles aims to ensure that by 2030 all textile products placed on the EU market are long-lived and recyclable. 

The Commission Communication on the monitoring framework for the 8^th Environment Action Programme.

Recommendation 2021/2279 on the use of Environmental Footprint methods for relevant policies and initiatives, to measure, manage and communicate environmental performance, burdens and other information relating to the life cycle of products (goods and services) and organisations. 

The Transition Pathway for the Textiles Ecosystem identifies 50 specific actions to make the textiles ecosystem greener, more digital and to ensure its long-term resilience and competitiveness. 

This EU contribution aligns with GBF Target 16, the element on reducing waste generation. 

For financing and capacity-building, please refer to the EU contributions to Targets 19 and 20.