Eco-labels to be trialled from July
A thousand products will have labels showing environmental impact, in a bid to promote greener lifestyles
LABELLING showing the environmental impact of about 1,000 consumer products is to be trialled for a year from July.
A total of 168 companies have agreed to label products, including furniture, food, stationery and clothing.
The labelling will, it is planned, take into account carbon dioxide emissions and consumption of water and raw materials.
A senior civil servant in charge of sustainable development, Michèle Pappalardo, said: “The ‘multi-criteria’ aspect is important. It makes no sense to choose your washing powder according to carbon dioxide emissions but take no account of the impact on water.”
Evaluation criteria are being worked out product by product. Mr Pappalardo said he did not envisage a full roll-out of the idea before 2013, and then only on a few products.
All this is, however, a step back from previous talk from the Ecology Ministry of making such product labeling obligatory from the start of 2011.
A similar scheme, championed by former Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, to extend the “bonus-surcharge” system (used to penalise or subsidise cars, according to emissions) to “19 families” of consumer products, was shelved after the economic crisis in late 2008.
The supermarket chain Casino has been using its own indice carbone, meant to show carbon dioxide emissions, since 2008. It is now displayed on about 600 products.
