Ecodesign and the Circular Economy: Conflicting Policies in Europe

The number of policies that address the various life cycle environmental impacts of products are increasing, especially in Europe. With the rise of the Circular Economy (CE) concept, the traditional product policies have been supported by new ones that pursue new policy objectives such as increasing product lifetimes and encourage more repairs. In this contribution we discuss principles for improving synergies and reduce conflicts among different product policies. We then outline some of the recent conflicts between policies that have emerged in the context of the CE. We conclude that often the conflicts can be mitigated, or that it is possible to reach a compromise. However, we need to accept that in many cases there is no solution that will satisfy all involved stakeholders.