Determine the recyclability label to display on your products

What is recyclability according to AGEC law?

According to the decree n°2022-748, the obligation to provide information on the recyclability of products concerns producers and importers who declare an annual turnover of more than 10 M€ for products subject to EPR placed on the French market and who are responsible for placing more than 10,000 units per year of these products on the market. Producers whose turnover from EPR products placed on the French market does not exceed €10 million or whose number of EPR products placed on the market in France is less than 10,000 units are therefore not affected by the obligation. 

Decree n°2022-748 also establishes a progressive application according to the number of units placed on the French market (MSM) and the associated turnover (CA): 

• 1 January 2023 : producers with a turnover > 50 M€ and MSM > 25 000 units / year  

• 1 January 2024: producers with a turnover > 20 M€ and MSM > 10 000 units / year 

• 1 January 2025: producers with a turnover > 10 M€ and MSM > 10 000 units / year 

Article 13 of the AGEC law and decree N°2022-748 concerning consumer information, only household EEE are concerned by this obligation. 

Regulatory criteria and statements

The decree n°2022-748 establishes 5 criteria to characterise the recyclability of an EEE: 

1. The capacity to be efficiently collected on a territorial scale, through the population's access to local collection points; 
2. The ability to be sorted, i.e. directed to the recycling channels for recycling; 
3. The absence of elements or substances that disrupt sorting, recycling or limit the use of the recycled material;  
4. The ability of the recycled material produced by the recycling processes implemented to represent more than 50% by mass of the waste collected;
5. The capacity to be recycled on an industrial scale and in practice, in particular by guaranteeing that the quality of the recycled material obtained is sufficient to ensure the sustainability of the application markets, and that the recycling chain can justify a good capacity to take on products that can be integrated into it.

According to the decree, several statements can be displayed: 

• if the 5 criteria are not met: no mention should be displayed, 

• if the product's recyclability is greater than 50%: "produit majoritairement recyclable" label 

• if the product's recyclability is greater than 95%: "produit entièrement recyclable”  label 

• when "the capacity to be recycled corresponds to the recycling of materials that are mostly reincorporated into products of an equivalent nature that have an identical use and purpose without functional loss of the material", the information may be completed by the words "produit recyclable en produit de même nature” 

• However, given the current state of knowledge and the WEEE sector, given the complexity of the EEE composition, of the recycling processes and the diversity of outlets, it is not possible to claim "produit entièrement recyclable" or "produit recyclable en produit de même nature" for EEE (although this point may be reconsidered in the future).