Determine the recyclability statement to display for your products

What are your obligations?

The AGEC law (2020) created a new obligation for producers to inform consumers about the environmental qualities and characteristics of products placed on the market (Article 13) on recyclability in particular.

This obligation is established in the Environmental Code (translation with no legal value):

Art. L. 541-9-1. - In order to improve consumer information, producers and importers of waste-generating products shall inform consumers, by means of marking, labelling, display or any other appropriate process, of their environmental qualities and characteristics, in particular the incorporation of recycled material, the use of renewable resources, durability, compostability, repairability, reusability, recyclability and the presence of hazardous substances, precious metals or rare earths, in accordance with European Union law. [...]

The information provided for in this paragraph must be visible or accessible to the consumer at the time of purchase. The producer or importer shall be responsible for making the data relating to the aforementioned qualities and characteristics available to the public electronically, in a format that is easily reusable and usable by an automated processing system in an aggregated form. Centralised access to this data may be set up by the administrative authority in accordance with procedures specified by decree. [...]

A decree in the Council of State shall lay down the procedures for implementing this article, in particular the definition of environmental qualities and characteristics, the procedures for establishing them, the categories of products concerned and the procedures for providing information to consumers. [...]

Decree No. 2022-748 of 29 April 2022 specifies the terms of application of these obligations, through Articles R 541-220 to R541-223 of the Environmental Code. The decree also establishes that the information on recyclability is communicated to the producer by the Producer Responsibility Organisation (“PRO”) to which it belongs, if necessary with the provision of a calculation tool using a harmonised method.

A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) has been published by the Ministry of Ecology: Framework for environmental claims and consumer information on products.

According to the decree n°2022-748, the obligation to provide information on the recyclability of products concerns producers and importers who declare an annual turnover of more than 10 M€ for products subject to EPR placed on the French market and who are responsible for placing more than 10,000 units per year of these products on the market. Producers whose turnover from EPR products placed on the French market does not exceed €10 million or whose number of EPR products placed on the market in France is less than 10,000 units are therefore not affected by the obligation.

Decree n°2022-748 also establishes a progressive application according to the number of units placed on the French market (MSM) and the associated turnover (CA):

1 January 2023 (postponed 3 months after sending this information to public authorities): producers with a turnover > 50 M€ and MSM > 25 000 units / year
1 January 2024: producers with a turnover > 20 M€ and MSM > 10 000 units / year
1 January 2025: producers with a turnover > 10 M€ and MSM > 10 000 units / year

Article 13 of the AGEC law and decree N°2022-748 concerning consumer information, only household EEE are concerned by this obligation.

What is « recyclability » and what are the possible statements?

The decree n°2022-748 establishes 5 criteria to characterise the recyclability of an EEE:

The capacity to be efficiently collected on a territorial scale, through the population's access to local collection points;
The ability to be sorted, i.e. directed to the recycling channels for recycling;
The absence of elements or substances that disrupt sorting, recycling or limit the use of the recycled material
The ability of the recycled material produced by the recycling processes implemented to represent more than 50% by mass of the waste collected
The capacity to be recycled on an industrial scale and in practice, in particular by guaranteeing that the quality of the recycled material obtained is sufficient to ensure the sustainability of the application markets, and that the recycling chain can justify a good capacity to take on products that can be integrated into it.

According to the decree, several statements can be displayed:

if one or several of the 5 criteria are not met: no mention should be displayed ,
if the product's recyclability is greater than 50%: "produit majoritairement recyclable" label
if the product's recyclability is greater than 95%: "produit entièrement recyclable” label
when "the capacity to be recycled corresponds to the recycling of materials that are mostly reincorporated into products of an equivalent nature that have an identical use and purpose without functional loss of the material", the information may be completed by the words "produit recyclable en produit de même nature”

How does ecosystem help you?

In order to help you get compliant, we produced methodologies to evaluate the recyclability statements for the different product categories we have an agreement for (Electronic and Electrical Equipment, Lamps, Small Fire Extinguishers).
Please note these methodologies do not allow to calculate a recyclability rate but only to answer the regulatory requirement in the form of a recyclability statement.
These methodologies may be revised and improved in time in order to take into account technical evolutions and precise some methodological rules and improve the reliability of the evaluations.

For household Electronic and Electrical Equipment producers

ecosystem and Ecologic PROs worked jointly to produce a harmonized methodology allowing producers of household EEE to determine the recyclability statement for their products according to the information stated in Decree n°2022-748.

For Lamp producers

ecosystem worked to produce a methodology allowing producers of household Lamps to determine the recyclability statement for their products according to the information stated in Decree n°2022-748.

Please note that it is mandatory to use the technical note of household EEE to determine the recyclability statement of luminaires.

For Small Fire Extinguisher (SFE) producers

ecosystem worked to produce a methodology allowing producers of household Small Fire Extinguishers to determine the recyclability statement for their products according to the information stated in Decree n°2022-748.