WHAT IS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY?

In recent years, factors – such as the scarcity of raw materials, their rising prices and how difficult it is to resupply them – have highlighted several issues associated with the linear economy model leading to the ever-growing necessity to move towards to a circular economy model. 

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation definition, circular economy "is a generic term for an economy designed to regenerate itself. ... The circular economy is thus an economic system planned to reuse materials in subsequent production cycles, reducing waste to a minimum!" 

In the linear model "production-consumption-disposal" every product is destined to reach the "end of life" and become waste. In the circular economy model, products are not considered as waste but as resources for new products, thus ensuring sustainable development without wasting resources. This model considers both the preservation of the environment and human health as well as competitiveness and innovation. 

The European Commission adopted in 2015 the Action Plan for the Transition to a Circular Economy. This Action Plan entails the entire life cycle of materials, and includes legislative proposals on waste with the long-term goal of reducing landfilling and increasing recycling and reuse of materials. Among the measures included in the Plan, those that will affect the design of products aimed at their reparability, durability and recyclability are of paramount importance. In addition, it is the intention of the Commission, in the revision of all sector legislation, to pay particular attention to the coherence of the various measures, with particular reference to the products-waste interface and chemical content. 

In January 2018, the European Commission presented the "Communication on the implementation of the circular economy package: options to address the interface between chemical, product and waste legislation" which identifies four issues: 

• information on the presence of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) is not easily accessible to those who treat waste and prepare it for recovery; 
• the waste may contain substances that are no longer allowed in new products; 
• EU rules determining when a waste ceases to be a waste are not fully harmonized and it is therefore difficult to determine how waste becomes a new material and product; 
• the rules for determining which wastes and chemicals are hazardous are not well aligned, which affects the use of recovered materials. 

The European Commission's March 2019 report on the implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan shows that the 54 actions in the 2015 Action Plan have mostly been implemented or are in the process of being implemented, and that the implementation of the Action Plan has accelerated the transition towards a circular economy in Europe. 

In March 2020, the European Commission presented, as part of the European Green deal, the action plan for a new circular economy that includes designing more sustainable products, reducing waste, and giving citizens more awareness such as the 'right to repair'. Sectors such as electronics and information and communication technologies, plastics, textiles, and construction are most involved. 

In February 2021, the European Parliament voted for the new Circular Economy Action Plan to achieve a zero-carbon, environmentally sustainable economy that is as free of SVHCs as possible and fully circular by 2050.  

Often the presence of SVHCs prevents the recovery and reuse of some products, creating significant issues for waste management companies, as they do not know the characteristics and composition of the products they are supposed to recycle. For this purpose, ECHA (European Chemical Agency) has developed the database called SCIP (Substances of Concern in articles as such or in complex objects Products) are an important tool to ensure the traceability of substances in products. The Waste Framework Directive, as amended by Directive 2018/851, requires that as of January 5, 2021, companies supplying articles containing SVHC substances included in the Candidate List in concentrations above 0.1% w/w must provide information on these articles to ECHA. The aim of the database is to improve the transparency of information on the substances in articles, allowing operators engaged in recovery and recycling activities to know the characteristics of those materials to recover. It also ensures that information on SVHC on the Candidate List is available throughout the lifecycle of products and materials, including the disposal phase as waste. In addition, the database promotes the substitution of hazardous substances with safer alternatives by helping waste managers ensure that these substances are not present in recycled materials. 

As part of the circular economy, the waste legislation has evolved (Directive 2018/851/EU) and introduces in Article 6 the concept of End of Waste (EoW) (low n. 128/2019 che all’articolo 14bis), which refers to a recovery process carried out on waste, at the end of which the latter loses the waste qualification to acquire that of product. Therefore, EoW does not refer to the final result but to the process that allows waste to play a useful role as a product again.  

Reducing the use of materials containing hazardous substances is a very important aspect of the circular economy model, i.e. an economy in which today's products will be tomorrow's resources, in which the value of materials is maintained or recovered as much as possible, in which both waste and the impact on the environment are minimized. 

For a correct recovery of materials, it is important to establish the scope of application of the various regulations involved. The REACH Regulation states that waste, as defined under Article 3 in Directive 2018/851 of the European Parliament and of the Council, is not considered to be a substance, mixture or article. Consequently, the REACH provisions for substances, mixtures and articles are not applicable to waste.  However, as soon as a material "ceases to be a waste", the provisions of the aforementioned Regulation are applicable as for any other material, unless they are exempted. 

It is necessary to take into account both whether the recovered substances are subject to Authorization for Use as components of mixtures or articles, and if they are included in Annex XIV of REACH. This implies that the operator who carries out the recovery of a substance included in Annex XIV, and applies for the Authorization of Use, must prepare a plan for the substitution of this substance, identifying suitable alternative substances or technologies that are less hazardous and risky for both the human health and the environment, compared to the recovered substance. 

The objective is to have the same safety requirements for virgin raw materials and secondary raw materials. At the same time, the possibility of a gradual approach – through restrictions that establish temporary derogations for materials containing substances of concern, based on risk assessment at each stage of the product life cycle, in order to be able to make sustainable and recoverable products as much as possible – should not be excluded.  

Action Plan 

The European Commission adopted the Action Plan for the Transition to a Circular Economy in 2015. This Action Plan, which covers the entire life cycle of materials, includes legislative proposals on waste with the long-term goal of reducing landfilling, increasing recycling, and reusing materials. One of the key aspects in relation to the sustainability of activities related to the circular economy is the one related to chemicals legislation. 

In December 2019, the European Green Deal was unveiled. It aims to transform the European Union into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy by ensuring that: 

• by 2050 there will no longer be net greenhouse gas emissions, 
• economic growth is decoupled from resource use, 
• nobody, nowhere around the globe, is neglected 

In February 2021, the European Parliament voted for the new Circular Economy Action Plan to achieve a zero-carbon, environmentally sustainable economy that will be as free of SVHCs as possible and fully circular by 2050.