Revision of EU Ecolabel for Furniture European Union Ecolabelling Board (EUEB) meeting, Brussels, March 2014 Shane Donatello (JRC-IPTS) www.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Some issues to consider with furniture: recycled content criteria for plastics & metals definition of "recycled material“ definition of “recyclable” definition of “easy to dismantle”.

Recycled content: Scope to be expanded beyond wood Metals and plastics  higher embodied energy but  good properties and “recyclable”. Metal recycling market is mature. Plastic recycling not so, but can be done - examples. Verification of recycled content…

Recycled content Example of a table. Wood shall be legally sourced and traceable. ≥70% sustainably sourced (includes recycled wood). Plastic Up to 10% wt. virgin material allowed. If >10% wt.  then needs ≥50% recycled content. Metal Up to 20% wt. virgin material allowed. If >20% wt.  then needs ≥50% recycled content. Encourages wood (lower energy) in furniture without limiting metal or plastic.

Recycled material Definition of recycled material: Need to be careful, easy to "cheat" if definition is not clear. Suggest following ISO 14021: Post-consumer – quite obvious Pre-consumer – needs definition should exclude scrap material that can be reclaimed within the same process that generated it. "

Legal definition of "recyclable" and "easy to dismantle". In theory it can be argued that almost every material is recyclable…. Should we list materials that are considered realistically recyclable only? - based on markets and current industrial practice. How easy is "easy to dismantle"? That 1-2 people can do it with no specialist tools? Normal tools being considered as those such as a screwdriver, allan key, hammer, spanner etc? 8 April 2019

Thank you!