Mandate M/543 on standards for the transition towards a circular economy
In 2015, the European Commission requested CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, by means of Mandate M/543 (Brussels, 17.12.2015 C(2015) 9096 final) to develop horizontal standards and standardisation deliverables for energy-related products (ErP) in support of the implementation of the Ecodesign Directive (2009/125(EC) and to contribute to the transition to a circular economy. The areas covered by this standardisation request relate to the following material efficiency aspects:
- Extending product lifetime
- Ability to reuse components or recycle materials from products at end-of-life
- Use or reused components and/or recycled materials in products
The standards prepared pursuant to Mandate M/543 are general in nature and shall be the basis for developing specific future publications that cover specific ErP products or product groups.
The technical reports (TR) and standards (EN) that are in the pipeline at the time of writing are listed below, and which are considered in greater detail in the attached document.
They cover areas such as product durability, repairability, reusability, recyclability, recycled content, ability to be remanufactured and life expectancy of the product.
Other aspects that can affect the material efficiency, such as renewable resources, biodegradable plastics, weight reduction and multifunctionality, are not covered by this series of standards, despite their possible influence.
The documents included in the work plan and which are explained in detail in the attached document are:
- (TR 45550) Definitions related to material efficiency
- (TR 45551) Guide on how to use generic material efficiency standards when writing energy-related product specific standardisation deliverables
- (EN 45552) General method for the assessment of the durability of energy-related products
- (EN 45553) General methods for assessing the ability to remanufacture energy-related products
- (EN 45554) General methods for the assessment of the ability to repair, reuse and upgrade energy-related products
- (EN 45555) General methods for assessing the recyclability and recoverability of energy-related products
- (EN 45556) General method for assessing the proportion of reused components in energy-related products
- (EN 45557) General method for assessing the proportion of recycled material content in energy-related products
- (EN 45558) General method to declare the use of critical raw materials in energy-related products
- (EN 45559) Methods for providing information relating to material efficiency aspects of energy-related products
Even though they are not currently definitive standards and are in the review phase prior to their final publication, they can be a good tool to define methods to qualitatively and quantitively assess certain properties of the products in order to drive the circular economy.
Therefore, they could be considered as possible tools to support the ecodesign of energy-related products, allowing certain aspects of them to be quantified and improved.
The datasheets included in the attached document are for information purposes only and seek to summarise in some detail the respective working papers.
Under no circumstances do they seek to be a literal translation of or to substitute them in any way. In case of discrepancy between those datasheets and the original document, the text included in the later shall always prevail.
The available versions of the standards have been used to prepare this document. Subsequent versions may be published that do not coincide exactly with the description included in this document.
The objective of those summary datasheets is to show the aspects addressed so far by each document and, as applicable, to act as the basis for the user to define their own qualitative and quantitative methods to assess aspects associated to material efficiency and the circular economy in energy-related products (ErP).