Photo: Exported e-waste in a 'digital dumping ground' in Ghana, Credit: Marlenenapoli (CC0)

We are living in a throw-away society and our ways of living right now are not sustainable. We need to find ways that are sustainable for our society, our economy, AND for our environment. We know that most consumers want to do their bit for the the environment! The government's Environment Act 2021 goes some way towards this by introducing recycling labels for packaging that all our products come in. 

But we also need to better understand how to deal with our products at the end of their life. Products includes everything we could buy such as food, technology, furniture or clothing. A lot of our products end up causing unintended harm at the end of their life.

Information helps us make better choices. Right now, there is no law that exists to mandate companies to tell us:

• how long they have designed a product to last, and 
• what is the plan for its disposal when it comes to the end of its life

This makes it difficult for us to make responsible choices about the products we buy and then dispose of safely. The mandated French repairibility index shows that such measures are possible through changes in law.

What are we asking the government to do?

Make it mandatory in law for companies to:

1. Publish the ‘reasonable’ or ‘estimated’* lifespan of their products. 

An example: If Toaster A costs £10 and has an ‘estimated product lifespan’ of 3 years, and Toaster B costs £15 with an ‘estimated product lifespan’ of 8 years, a consumer has the choice to buy Toaster B knowing it would be better financially and environmentally.

2. Publish what materials were used in making the product and how to dispose of them at the end of the lifespan of each product.

An example of clear labelling for a product could include:

• Alternative reuse possible (including the available options)
• Recovery - Return to the company for reuse
• Recycled (specify type of recycling, ease of recycling and where - such as 'widely recycled', 'return to company for recycling', 'terracycle')
• Biodegradable (specify where the item should be placed)
• Compostable (specify home or industrial compost and show options of where the product could be composed)
• Not recycled (specify landfill or incineration)

Some products may require more detailed instructions online. This may include, for example, instructions on how to separate a bike helmet easily to recycle its individual parts at the end of its life. 

This benefits everyone:

The Government gains by being able to charge companies penalties for products that are only suitable for landfill. This will add pressure on companies to move towards making more sustainable products and better informing consumers. 

This also helps the government move closer to their own Environment Plan commitment to eliminate avoidable waste by 2050.

The Consumer is better able to make informed choices about what products they buy, knowing better how long they will last for and where they will end up. It will also make their consumer rights clearer when the ‘reasonable length of time’ a product should last is defined.

Responsible companies will be able to share comparisons more clearly when their products are built to last and ideally reused or recycled responsibly, creating healthier competition.   

Most importantly, all of these measures will also benefit our environment!

* reasonable/estimated lifespan should be a defined industry standard such as MTBF - mean time between failure