Regulations and Trends

EU Circular Economy

A comprehensive movement is underway to extend the life cycle of products and thus reduce waste to a minimum. Circular economy underpins a new  model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials, components and products as long as possible.

The main goal is to retain value, materials, and data. When a product reaches the end of its life, recycling, reusing, etc. ensure that the materials are kept in the economy in a new loop, which then creates further value for the economy. This is also true for product data. 

The European Green Deal was set up to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, ensuring no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and economic growth decoupled from resource use.  

One third of the €1.8 trillioninvestments from the NextGenerationEU Recovery Plan and the EU’s seven-year budget are financing the European Green Deal, and several pieces of EU legislation are based on the Paris Agreement, the EU Green Deal and the Circular Economy Plan. This is also a priority for GS1 in Europe because there is no circular economy without circular product data.  

Want to know more about the GS1 role? Read the GS1 in Europe Circular Data for the Circular Economy paper. 

Digital Product Passport

GS1 in Europe welcomes the Sustainable Product Regulation proposal adopted on 30 March 2022 by the European Commission. This is released under the framework of the EU Green Deal, setting the objective of becoming the first climate-neutral region by 2050.

Green Deal

The EU Green Deal has set ambitious goals to enable a resource-efficient and competitive EU economy. By 2050: no net emissions of greenhouse gases and EU economic growth decoupled from resource use.

Circular Textile

The textile industry is one of the sectors that has been prioritised by the EU, with an action plan kickstarting its digital and circular transformation.

Related Publications

Circular Data for a Circular Economy
Circular Data for a Circular Economy