Eco-design: how recyclable are your products?

Extract from Decree No. 2022-748 of April 29, 2022, relating to consumer information on environmental qualities and characteristics.
“Recyclability is defined as the actual recycling capacity of waste generated from identical or similar products. For such waste, recyclability is characterized by the following criteria:

The capacity to be effectively collected on a national scale, through public access to local collection points;
The capacity to be sorted, i.e., directed towards recycling channels in order to be recycled;
The absence of elements or substances impeding sorting or recycling, or limiting use of recycled material;
The capacity for the recycled material produced by the recycling processes to be used;
The capacity to be recycled on an industrial scale and in practice, notably ensured by the guarantee that the quality of the resulting recycled material is sufficient to secure sustainable market outlets, and that the recycling sector can demonstrate adequate capacity to process the products intended for it.

Information on recyclability is made available to the consumer by marking ‘mostly recyclable product’ or ‘mostly recyclable packaging’ when these five criteria are met. If the recycled material produced by the recycling processes implemented represents more than 95% by mass of the collected waste, the information made available may include the marking ‘fully recyclable product’.
The information is given to the producer by the PRO responsible for managing extended responsibility requirement provided for in Article L. 541-10, where applicable with the provision of a tool for calculating the recyclability of the product using a standardised method. When the producer an individual extended responsibility system, it is their responsibility to determine this information.
Where the recyclability capacity corresponds to the recycling of materials that are predominantly reincorporated into products of an equivalent nature, serving an identical use and destination without any functional loss of the material, the producer may supplement the recyclability information with the statement: ‘Product recyclable into a product of the same nature’ or ‘Packaging recyclable into packaging of the same nature’.”