Evaluating Circular Economy Aspects in the EU Ecolabel Criteria

The EU Ecolabel encompasses a range of requirements that support a reduction in environmental impacts from a product’s life cycle perspective and that can help the transition towards a circular economy. This study analyses the level of circularity of the EU Ecolabel by assessing how the product-group-specific criteria of the EU Ecolabel integrate circular economy requirements. Following the Material Circularity Indicator, the study identified key concepts related to the circular economy and classified them into three groups: extension of product service time, material circularity and resource efficiency. This classification system was then used to analyse existing requirements for different EU Ecolabel products. The EU Ecolabel product groups, namely, electronic equipment, hard coverings and textile products, were selected according to the priority areas of the circular economy promoted by the European Commission. The analysis indicates a trend towards enhancing the circular approach in setting the EU Ecolabel criteria despite a heterogeneous distribution of the circular economy requirements among the product groups analysed some of which are influenced by the nature of the product group itself. Some circular economy aspects such as durability, substance restrictions, energy efficiency and provision of information have been integrated into the EU Ecolabel criteria. Although the EU Ecolabel criteria include requirements on the use of recycled materials, strengthening requirements on by-product use and recyclability would enhance material circulation. More requirements on upgradability, reparability and multifunctionality would also enhance the service time of products. Finally, requirements for water and material efficiency would increase product resource efficiency.