Today the European Parliament is discussing its report ‘Towards a more sustainable single market for business and consumers’.
If adopted on Wednesday and then taken on board by the European Commission, this could pave the way to a more sustainable industry and benefits for consumers.
‘Since the largest part of a product’s carbon footprint is attributable to the manufacturing process, it is essential that we rethink our manufacturing system and move towards truly sustainable products. Smartphones are a well-known case in point: 80 % of a device’s carbon footprint is generated during its manufacture and only 15 % of phones are collected and recycled at the end of their life.’
The European Parliament wants to ban ‘practices aimed at intentionally shortening the lifetime of a product, such as preventing repair at the design stage or causing a slowdown in performance after a software update (planned obsolescence), and preventing greenwashing.’
Another relevant point for is that the Parliament insists that the Commission take account of it’s decisions concerning the establishment of a common charger system, in order to reduce production volumes and electronic waste.
Similar attempts to improve legislation have been blocked by industry lobby before
See draft report European Parliament https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2020-0209_EN.html
The (often plain and boring) plenary discussions on this file can be followed live here today (23/11/2020 at 17:00): https://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/home.html