End Obsolescence Act – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

AN ACT

To end product obsolescence, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

(a) SHORT TITLE.— This Act may be cited as the “End Obsolescence Act.”

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act —

(a) “Ecodesign” means the integration of environmental sustainability considerations into the characteristics of a product and the processes taking place throughout the product’s value chain.

(b) “Ecodesign requirement” means a performance requirement or an information requirement aimed at making a product more environmentally sustainable.

(c) “Economic Operator” means the manufacturer, the authorized representative, the importer, the distributor, the dealer and the fulfilment service provider.

(d) “End-of-life” means the life cycle stage that begins when a product is discarded and ends when the product is returned to nature as a waste product or enters another product’s life cycle.

(e) “Environmental impact” means any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from a product during its life cycle.

(f) “Life cycle” means the consecutive and interlinked stages of a product’s life, consisting of raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources, preprocessing, manufacturing, storage, distribution, installation, use, maintenance, repair, upgrading, refurbishment and re-use, and end-of-life.

(g) “Microenterprise” means an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed USD 2 million.

(h) “Performance requirement” means a quantitative or non-quantitative requirement for or in relation to a product to achieve a certain performance level in relation to a product parameter referred to in section (4).

(i) “Product” means any physical good that is placed on the market or put into service.

(j) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Commerce.

(k) “Small Enterprise” means an enterprise which employs fewer than 50 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed USD 10 million.

(l) “SME” means enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding USD 50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding USD 43 million.

(m) “Supply chain” means all upstream activities and processes of the value chain of the product, up to the point where the product reaches the end-user.

SEC. 3. Commission on Product Sustainability

(a) IN GENERAL. — The Secretary shall establish a Commission for the purpose of establishing ecodesign requirements for, or in relation to, products to improve their environmental sustainability.

(b) These requirements shall be established in accordance with Sections (4) through (7) of this act.

SEC. 4. Ecodesign Requirements

(a) The Commission shall, as appropriate to the relevant product groups and with due consideration for all stages of their life cycle, establish ecodesign requirements to improve the following product aspects:

(1) durability;

(2) reliability;

(3) reusability;

(4) upgradability;

(5) reparability;

(6) possibility of maintenance and refurbishment;

(7) presence of substances of concern;

(8) energy use or energy efficiency;

(9) resource use or resource efficiency;

(10) recycled content;

(11) possibility of remanufacturing and recycling;

(12) possibility of recovery of materials;

(13) environmental impacts, including carbon and environmental footprint;

(14) expected generation of waste materials.

(b) The following parameters may, as appropriate, and where necessary supplemented by others, be used as a basis for improving the product aspects referred to in subparagraph (a):

(1) durability and reliability of the product or its components as expressed through the product’s guaranteed lifetime, technical lifetime, mean time between failures, indication of real use information on the product, resistance to stresses or ageing mechanisms;

(2) ease of repair and maintenance as expressed through: characteristics, availability and delivery time of spare parts, modularity, compatibility with commonly available spare parts, availability of repair and maintenance instructions, number of materials and components used, use of standard components, use of component and material coding standards for the identification of components and materials, number and complexity of processes and tools needed, ease of non-destructive disassembly and re-assembly, conditions for access to product data, conditions for access to or use of hardware and software needed;

(3) ease of upgrading, re-use, remanufacturing and refurbishment as expressed through: number of materials and components used, use of standard components, use of component and material coding standards for the identification of components and materials, number and complexity of processes and tools needed, ease of non-destructive disassembly and re-assembly, conditions for access to product data, conditions for access to or use of hardware and software needed, conditions of access to test protocols or not commonly available testing equipment, availability of guarantees specific to remanufactured or refurbished products, conditions for access to or use of technologies protected by intellectual property rights, modularity;

(4) ease and quality of recycling as expressed through: use of easily recyclable materials, safe, easy and non-destructive access to recyclable components and materials or components and materials containing hazardous substances, material composition and homogeneity, possibility for high-purity sorting, number of materials and components used, use of standard components, use of component and material coding standards for the identification of components and materials, number and complexity of processes and tools needed, ease of non-destructive disassembly and re-assembly, conditions for access to product data, conditions for access to or use of hardware and software needed;

(5) avoidance of technical solutions detrimental to re-use, upgrading, repair, maintenance, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling of products and components;

(6) use of substances, on their own, as constituents of substances or in mixtures, during the production process of products, or leading to their presence in products, including once these products become waste;

(7) consumption of energy, water and other resources in one or more life cycle stages of the product, including the effect of physical factors or software and firmware updates on product efficiency and including the impact on deforestation;

(8) use or content of recycled materials;

(9) weight and volume of the product and its packaging, and the product-to-packaging ratio;

(10) incorporation of used components;

(11) quantity, characteristics and availability of consumables needed for proper use and maintenance;

(l2) the environmental footprint of the product, expressed as a quantification, in accordance with the applicable delegated act, of a product’s life cycle environmental impacts, whether in relation to one or more environmental impact categories or an aggregated set of impact categories;

(13) the carbon footprint of the product;

(14) microplastic release;

(15) emissions to air, water or soil released in one or more life cycle stages of the product;

(16) amounts of waste generated, including plastic waste and packaging waste and their ease of re-use, and amounts of hazardous waste generated; and

(17) conditions for use.

(1) Take into account the following elements:

(i) Federal climate, environmental and energy efficiency priorities and other related Federal priorities;

(ii) relevant Federal legislation

(iv) relevant subnational environmental legislation; and

(v) relevant international standards;

(2) Carry out an impact assessment based on best available evidence and analyses, and as appropriate on additional studies and research results.

(d) Ecodesign requirements shall meet the following criteria:

(1) there shall be no significant negative impact on the functionality of the product, from the perspective of the user;

(2) there shall be no adverse effect on the health and safety of persons;

(3) there shall be no significant negative impact on consumers in terms of the affordability of relevant products, also taking into account access to second-hand products, durability and the life cycle cost of products;

(4) there shall be no disproportionate negative impact on the competitiveness of economic actors, at least of SMEs;

(5) there shall be no proprietary technology imposed on manufacturers or other economic actors;

(6) there shall be no disproportionate administrative burden on manufacturers or other economic actors.

(e) The Commission shall, where appropriate, require supply chain actors to:

(1) provide, upon request, manufacturers, notified bodies and competent national authorities with available information related to their supplies or services that is relevant in order to verify compliance with ecodesign requirements;

(2) allow, in the absence of information referred to in point (a), manufacturers to assess their supplies or services in order to verify compliance with ecodesign requirements and give access to relevant documents or facilities to those manufacturers;

(3) enable notified bodies and competent national authorities to verify the correctness of information related to their activities and relevant for verifying compliance with ecodesign requirements.

(f) the establishment of ecodesign requirements on the most significant aspects of a product among those listed in this section shall not be unduly delayed by uncertainties regarding the possibility to establish ecodesign requirements to improve other aspects of that product;

SEC. 5. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

(a) Covered Products shall comply with performance requirements related to the ecodesign aspects listed in Section (4).

(b) Performance requirements referred to in paragraph (a) shall, as appropriate, include:

(1) minimum or maximum levels in relation to a specific ecodesign aspect referred to in Section (3);

(2) non-quantitative requirements that aim to improve performance in relation to one or more ecodesign aspects referred to in section (3); and

(3) requirements related to the functional performance of a product

SEC. 6. DESTRUCTION OF UNSOLD CONSUMER PRODUCTS

(a) The Secretary shall be empowered to prohibit economic operators to destroy unsold consumer products where the destruction of unsold consumer products falling within a certain product group has significant environmental impact.

(b)When preparing a delegated act adopted pursuant to subsection (a), the Commission shall:

(1) assess the prevalence and environmental impact of the destruction of specific consumer products; and

(2) carry out an impact assessment based on best available evidence and analyses, and on additional studies as necessary.

(1) health and safety concerns;

(2) damage to products as a result of their handling or detected after a product has been returned by a consumer;

(3) fitness of the product for the purpose for which it is intended, taking into account, where applicable, Union and national law and technical standards; and

(4) refusal of products for donation, preparing for re-use or remanufacturing.

(d) This bill shall not apply to SMEs. However, the Commission may that the prohibition to destroy unsold consumer products shall apply to:

(1) medium-sized enterprises, where there is sufficient evidence that they account for a substantial proportion of unsold consumer products being destroyed;

(2) microenterprises, small enterprises or medium-sized enterprises, where there is sufficient evidence that they may be used to circumvent the prohibition to destroy unsold consumer products referred to in paragraph 3 or the disclosure obligation referred to in paragraph 4.