WIREDGOV

New standards are being developed by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI which will focus on product and component reuseability, upgradability, recyclability and durability.

The Energy using Products Directive have so far focused on improving the energy efficiency of products. Soon, new standards will be developed to address products’ use of materials too.

The work has been mandated by the European Commission, after being announced in last year’s Circular Economy Action Plan.

Over the next three years European standards bodies have the challenging task of developing 19 new horizontal standards and two technical reports which will address material efficiency.

Where possible, these standards will be applied to all electronic products covered by the Directive - including displays, computers, games consoles, printers and set top boxes – as well as products that may be brought into the scope of the Directive in future.

The work programme is ambitious. The Commission has asked the standardisation bodies to develop:

1. Definitions and methods relevant for assessing durability, upgradability and ability to repair, reuse and remanufacture products.
2. Provision of guidance on how these can be applied to product-specific standards.
3. Ability to access or remove certain components, consumables or assemblies from products to facilitate repair or remanufacture or reuse.
4. Reuseability/recyclability/recoverability indexes or criteria – taking into account evolution of recycling methods over time.
5. Ability to access or remove certain components or assemblies from products to facilitate their extraction at end-of-life for ease of treatment and recycling.
6. Methods to assess the proportion of reused components and/or recycled materials in products.
7. Use and recyclability of Critical Raw Materials to the EU, listed by the European Commission.
8. Documentation and/or marking regarding information relating to material efficiency of the product taking into account the intended audience (consumers, professionals and surveillance authorities).

Other requirements may be introduced in agreement between the relevant ESOs and the European Commission.

BSI is in the process of forming a mirror committee to monitor and comment on the work. Along with techUK, Apple and Samsung are
involved on behalf of techUK's membership.

We would like to hear from any other techUK members with expertise, research or views to help shape the development of this work.