What it takes to ecodesign for a circular economy

 The ecodesign regulation proposed by the European Commission seeks to reduce the overall environmental impact of a wide range of products. To be effective, it should not only focus on individual products but also towards increasing collection, sorting, repair and recirculation systems, writes Valérie Boiten.

Valérie Boiten is senior policy officer at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity committed to develop and promoting the idea of a circular economy. 

One thousand thirty-nine terawatt hours, or 89 million tonnes of oil: that is the estimated amount of primary energy savings resulting from EU ecodesign and energy labelling rules in the year 2020. 

In a remarkable move, the European Commission proposed in 2021 to expand and strengthen this piece of legislation. The impact of the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is expected to be even greater than that of its predecessor, the Ecodesign Directive.(...)