In January 2022 the European Commission (EC) has opened a public consultation to gather European stakeholders’ feedbacks on the upcoming proposal for a Directive on Sustainable Consumption of Goods – Promoting Repair and Reuse.

This initiative intends to promote a more sustainable use of goods throughout their useful life. It will encourage consumers to make more sustainable choices by providing incentives and tools to use goods for a longer time, including by repairing defective goods.

The initiative also aims to:

  • encourage producers to design goods that last longer and are easily reparable,
  • help reduce unsustainable consumption and its negative impact on the global environment and climate,
  • help build a circular economy.

Furthermore, the initiative will lead to a proposal on the right to repair, producing synergies with other initiatives such as the sustainable products initiative, circular electronics and the empowering consumers initiative in the green transition, as well as with product-specific Eco-design regulations. The feedback and consultation period has started on 11 January 2022 and will last until 05 April 2022, whereas the adoption of the Directive is envisaged for the third quarter of 2022.

This initiative has a strong potential to support SMART WASTE project activities in fostering innovation in waste management in partners’ territories.

Contribute to the consultation here.

Photo by Kilian Seiler on Unsplash