Promoting The Circular Economy: Product Regulation And Brexit – Environment – European Union – Mondaq News Alerts

Political commitments to greater environmental sustainabilityare translating into policies and legislation in the EU and UK toencourage circular economies: switching from the linear'take-make-consume-dispose' model for products to'closed loop' industrial processes.

Legislating to deal with waste and the environment is not newand current initiatives on the circular economy build on other workdone in recent years.

In 2018 four EU amending directives came into force, requiringtransposition into national law by July 2020 of amendments to the2008 Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive 1999, thePackaging Waste Directive 1994, the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive2000, the Batteries Directive 2006 and the Waste Electrical andElectronic Equipment Directive 2012. Member states are required totake steps to introduce a waste hierarchy, to encourage reuse andrecycling of materials and to ensure recyclable waste is not sentto landfill (targets on recycling municipal waste are 55% by 2025,rising to 65% by 2035 and for packaging 65% by 2025 and 70% by2030). Landfill is targeted to reduce to 10% of municipal waste by2035.

In July this year, the UK Government and devolvedadministrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland committedto the implementation of the amending directives, through a mixtureof legislative and non-legislative action. The Waste (CircularEconomy) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 came into force on 1 October2020 and amended a raft of primary and secondary legislation onwaste, to cross-refer to the updated EU legislation and itsrequirements.

The European Green Deal, launched in December 2019, is anoverarching initiative to encourage economic growth whilst tacklingsustainability issues. It has been followed by the Commission'sCircular Economy Action Plan 2020. In September 2020 the Commissionreleased a sustainable products initiative - 'Inception ImpactAssessment Roadmap' - intended to drive environmental highperformance through sustainability principles and requirements forall products and services put onto the EU market.

The circular economy remains on the EU agenda and through arange of plans and initiatives, the Commission has prioritised thefollowing areas: excessive packaging, recovering value from waste,ending the export of waste to non-EU territories, batteries,plastics, construction and ICT equipment, extending the ecodesigndirective to non-energy-related products and improving consumerinformation.

The 2019 Single-Use Plastic Directive requires member states to:reduce consumption of food containers and cups; ban products suchas cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers and polystyrene foodcontainers; introduce extended producer responsibility forsubsequent use and disposal of the products; and introduce separatecollection for the purpose of recycling for 77% of products by2025/90% by 2029. Member states must also introduce penalties fornon-compliance. The implementation deadline is July 2021.

In May this year, the Commission also set out plans for a newregulation, in the first half of 2021, updating maximum wasteconcentration limit values for persistent organic pollutants, whichpose particular risks to the environment and health as theyconcentrate in food chains.

Given the EU's policy focus, additional legislation incoming years to further promote a circular economy seemslikely.

Having left the EU on 31 January 2020, the UK is currently inthe transition period which ends on 31 December 2020. During 2020the UK is treated as an EU member state in terms of theimplementation and application of existing and new EU law. From 1January 2021, existing EU-derived law related to waste and thepromotion of a circular economy will continue to operate in the UKas retained domestic law.

The circular economy is on the agenda for UK policy makers as itis for the EU. The UK Government has a 'resources and wastestrategy' which includes plans to tackle the'throw-away'/'disposable' mindset in relation toconsumer goods and to support and strengthen options for re-use,re-manufacture, repair and recycling; and the devolvedadministrations have separate plans. In the consumer productcontext, repair of products raises some legitimate safety concerns,especially if the aim is to enable consumers to perform repairsthemselves. That said, with a genuine desire to achievesustainability, and to accept the potentially adverse impacts thatgoal might entail for profitability, these highly laudable andnecessary structural changes are more than achievable.

Whilst implementation of the Single Use Plastics directive fallsafter the Brexit transition period and so will not become retainedEU law, the UK Government has plans for similar measures.

Brexit is unlikely, therefore, to lead to any immediate ordramatic change in the UK domestic law related to the promotion ofa circular economy.

However, looking to the future, this is a policy area in whichBrexit on the one hand and devolution on the other raise thelikelihood of divergence, in legislative and policy details and insubstantive standards, as between the EU and UK nations.

Given the size of the EU market, and that this is a policy areain which the EU is a leading developer of new regulation,compliance with EU standards (which may be over-and-above UKrequirements), is likely to continue to be a practical (and oftenlegal) necessity for many businesses.

Product and packaging designers and manufacturers, as well asothers in the supply chain, need to engage with this issue toensure compliance with current legislation and to be ready for theinevitable further steps taken to promote a circular economy.

16/11/2020

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Promoting The Circular Economy: Product Regulation And Brexit - Environment - European Union - Mondaq News Alerts