The sustainability index, which informs consumers about the possibility of extending the life and use of certain devices, will come into force on Wednesday for televisions.
This durability index will replace the repairability index for several categories – a tool provided as part of the 2020 anti-waste law offering a score ranging from 1 to 10, with the aim of specifying whether a product is easy to repair and to facilitate access to spare parts.
The repairability index has been deployed since January 2021 across five product categories – smartphones, laptops, televisions, lawn mowers, porthole washing machines. It was extended at the end of 2022 to four other categories: top-opening washing machines, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, high-pressure cleaners.
But a decree published in April 2024 announced that from 2025, this index would be replaced by a “sustainability” index for certain categories of products, starting with televisions (January 8) and washing machines (all type of opening, April 8).
“It includes new criteria, in particular relating to the reliability of the product”, or concerning resistance to stress and wear, or even the existence of a commercial guarantee, the Ministry of Ecological Transition indicated at the end of December on his site.
Tuesday, in a press release, the association “Stop planned obsolescence” (HOP) welcomed “good news” with the entry into force of this new device on the label of televisions, which it describes as “ more complete” and “essential to enlighten consumers on the reliability of goods and encourage manufacturers to produce eco-designed goods”.
HOP regrets, however, that this ecological poster “still concerns too few products”.
The association also specifies that the ministry and the stakeholders concerned “worked together initially on three categories of products: televisions, washing machines and smartphones” and deplores “the exclusion of smartphones from this system following a decision of the European Commission” which had given an unfavorable opinion concerning the inclusion of these products in the system, specifies HOP on its site.
