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Mobile device manufacturers may be subject to regulations that aim to mitigate the environmental impact of such devices.

By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and James Bee

On 31 August 2022, the European Commission published draft “ecodesign” regulations covering various components of smartphones and tablets, seeking to improve the environmental performance of these products.

Proposed Ecodesign Requirements

Under the Ecodesign Directive, a framework established in 2009 by the EU for the purposes of setting eco-design requirements for energy-related products, the Commission is empowered to develop regulations that lay down requirements as to the design of certain products that have significant environmental impact. These ecodesign requirements aim to harmonise resource efficiency requirements for impactful products throughout the EU to improve their environmental performance.

The Commission indicated that it chose to introduce regulation on smartphones and tablets (similar regulations have previously been introduced for products including dishwashers, domestic ovens and vacuum cleaners) due to the steep increase in demand for the products in the EU over the past decade resulting in an increase in demand for energy and materials to manufacture the devices. The Commission also noted that smartphones and tablets are often replaced prematurely by users and are, at the end of their useful life, not sufficiently reused or recycled, leading to a waste of resources.

Under the draft regulations, 15 components of smartphones and tablets, including batteries and charging ports, would be made available for at least five years from the date the device is placed on the European market. Additional requirements would also be imposed in relation to the capacity of batteries, and for smartphones and tablets to be tested for resistance to being scratched, exposed to water, and dropped (with the requirement that phones can be dropped 100 times without losing functionality).

The Circular Economy Package aims to “close the loop” of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use.

By Paul A. Davies, Eun-Kyung Lee, and Patrick Braasch

The Circular Economy Package includes four directives that were adopted by the European Parliament on 18 April 2018 (see Latham’s previous post) and by the EU Council on 22 May 2018. The directives were recently published in the Official Journal (OJ L 150, 14 June 2018), and entered into force on 4 July 2018 and Member States should implement the directives within a two year period.

The legislative package amends:

  • The Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC)
  • The Landfilling Directive (1999/31/EC)
  • The Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC)
  • The Directives on end-of-life vehicles (2000/53/EC), on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators (2006/66/EC), and on waste electrical and electronic equipment (2012/19/EU)

The overall goal of the directives is to improve EU waste management. This will contribute to the protection, preservation, and improvement of the quality of the environment as well as encourage the prudent and rational use of natural resources. More specifically, the directives aim to implement the concept of “waste hierarchy”, which has been defined in Article 4 of the Waste Framework Directive. The waste hierarchy sets a priority order for all waste prevention and management legislation and policy which should make any disposal of waste a solution the last resort:

  1. Prevention
  2. Preparing for re-use
  3. Recycling
  4. Other recovery, e.g., energy recovery
  5. Disposal

Member States will follow a single EU legislative framework merging industrial policies and environmental protection to encourage sustainable economic and social development.

By Paul A. Davies and Jörn Kassow

The European Parliament adopted the new Circular Economy Package, on 18 April 2018, setting ambitious, legally binding EU targets for waste recycling and reduction of landfilling. The package aims to further increase municipal waste recycling and lower the amount of landfilling. Currently, over a quarter of municipal waste is still landfilled and less than half is recycled or composted. This has a negative impact on the environment, climate, human health, as well as the economy.

Through the updated waste management legislation, the EU promotes a shift to a more sustainable model known as the circular economy. This is a model of production and consumption that extends the lifecycle of products, components, and materials, to reduce waste disposal to a minimum. This shall replace the former linear economic model, which is based on a “take-make-consume-throw away” pattern and therefore wastes a lot of resources and energy.

The multi-pronged plan will encourage a collaborative national effort to dispose of France’s “consume and discard” model.

By Paul A. Davies

The French Prime Minister recently unveiled the country’s circular economy roadmap. The 50-item scheme, announced on 23 April 2018, is the result of consultation with stakeholders (November 2017 —January 2018) and a two-stage online public participation involving the solicitation of comments and then the submission of draft roadmap (November 2017—February 2018).

The roadmap

Some measures are new and some derive from Law n°2015-992 of 17 August 2015 on energy transition, which was the catalyst for the nation’s circular economy scheme in a variety of respects. By 2019, the roadmap will be followed by a bill and regulatory measures transposing the EU’s Circular Economy Package objectives, which will lead to the amendment of the following directives:

  • Waste
  • Packaging waste
  • Landfill
  • Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE)
  • End-of-life vehicles
  • Waste batteries
  • Accumulators

The government’s plan to tackle internal and imported plastic waste is the latest phase in China’s clean energy commitment.

By Paul A. Davies and R. Andrew Westgate

Although China’s ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions and air pollution have received global attention and coverage, the country’s significant steps to reduce solid waste pollution have been subject to less scrutiny. Plastics, which are both manufactured and imported into China for recycling in vast quantities, are a case point. The National Development and Reform Commissions (NDRC), China’s key economic planning body, has frequently affirmed its commitment to reducing plastic waste pollution. To further this objective, the NDRC is expected to revise a 2008 order, which banned the production and sale of plastic bags less than 0.025 millimetres thick. The order also made it compulsory for retailers to charge customers for plastic bags.

The ambitious proposal aims to ensure all plastic packaging is reusable or recyclable by 2030.

By Paul Davies, Michael Green and Betta Righini

Background

Amid increasing scrutiny of plastic waste, the European Commission (the Commission) has released a for plastics in a circular economy (the Strategy). The Strategy builds upon the European Union’s (the EU’s) prior measures to reduce plastic waste, such as the Plastic Bags Directive, which has significantly reduced plastic bag use throughout several Member States. However, in order to support the Commission’s “vision for Europe’s new plastics economy,” the Strategy sets a number of more far-reaching and ambitious goals.