Revision of the EU Ecolabel criteria for Paper products Technical Report 2.0 Draft criteria proposal Malgorzata Kowalska, Shane Donatello, Miguel Gama Caldas, Oliver Wolf September, 2017 EUR xxxxx xx This publication is a Technical report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of this publication. Contact information Name: Malgorzata Kowalska Address: Edificio Expo, c/ Inca Garcilaso, 3. 41092 Seville (Spain) Email: [email protected] Tel.: +34 954 488 347 JRC Science Hub https://ec.europa.eu/jrc JRCxxxxx EUR xxxxx xx PDF ISBN xxx-xx-xx-xxxxx-x ISSN xxxx-xxxx doi:xx.xxxxx/xxxxxx Seville: European Commission, 2017 © European Union, 2017 The reuse of the document is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged and the original meaning or message of the texts are not distorted. The European Commission shall not be held liable for any consequences stemming from the reuse. How to cite this report: Malgorzata Kowalska et al., Revision of the EU Ecolabel criteria for Copying and Graphic Paper and Newsprint Paper, EUR, doi All images © European Union 2016 unless otherwise specified September 2017 EUR xxxxx xx Contents Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Brief background to the EU Ecolabel ............................................................... 4 1.2 The criteria revision process .......................................................................... 5 2 Preliminary Report summary ............................................................................... 6 2.1. Key environmental aspects and relation with the criteria proposal ..................... 6 3 Product group names, definitions and scopes proposal ......................................... 11 3.1 Name, definition and scope of EU Ecolabel .................................................... 11 3.2 Rationales for the revised proposal .............................................................. 12 3.2.1 Copying, graphic paper and newsprint paper .......................................... 14 3.2.2 Tissue paper ....................................................................................... 15 3.2.3. Business to Business labels: pulp and paper .......................................... 16 3.3. Outcomes from and after the 1st AHWG meeting: ......................................... 17 3.4. Further consideration ................................................................................. 17 4 Proposed framework for the revision of the EU Ecolabel criteria and main changes .. 20 5 Criteria proposal .............................................................................................. 21 5.1. Criterion 1: Emissions to water and air ........................................................ 21 5.1.1 Criterion 1a) Chemical Oxygen demand (COD), Phosphorus (P), Sulphur (S), Nitrogen oxides (NOx) .................................................................................. 23 5.1.2 Criterion 1b) AOX .............................................................................. 38 5.1.3 Criterion 1c) CO2 ............................................................................... 44 5.2 Criterion 2: Energy use ............................................................................. 54 5.2.1. Summary of the primary proposal ........................................................ 56 5.2.2. Rationales for the revised proposal ....................................................... 56 5.2.3. The general approach of BREF to energy management ............................ 58 5.2.4. Outcomes from and after the 1st AHWG meeting ................................... 59 5.2.5. Further research and main changes ...................................................... 60 5.2.6. Summary of the reference sources for the proposed values ..................... 70 5.2.7. Methodology for reporting on energy consumption ................................. 70 5.3 Criterion 3: Fibres – conserving resources, sustainable forest management ..... 73 5.3.1 Criteria proposal – fibre sourcing ........................................................... 73 5.3.2 Summary of the primary proposal ......................................................... 75 5.3.3 Rationale of proposed criterion text ....................................................... 76 5.3.4 Outcomes from 1st AHWG meeting ......................................................... 78 1 5.3.5 Further research and main changes ....................................................... 80 5.4 Criterion 4: Restricted hazardous substances and mixtures ............................. 88 5.4.1 Criteria proposal – horizontal hazardous substance and mixture restrictions 88 5.4.2 Criteria proposal – specific hazardous substance restrictions ..................... 94 5.5 Criterion 5: Waste Management ................................................................ 101 5.5.1. Summary of the proposal .................................................................. 101 5.5.2. Outcomes from and after the 1st AHWG meeting ................................. 102 5.5.3. Rationale for the revised proposal ...................................................... 102 5.6 Criterion 6: Fitness for use ........................................................................ 105 5.6.1. Rationales for the revised proposal ..................................................... 105 5.6.2. Outcomes from and after the 1st AHWG meeting ................................. 106 5.7 Criterion 7: Information on the packaging (Copying and graphic paper/Newsprint Paper only) ................................................................................................... 108 5.8 Criterion 8: Information appearing on the EU Ecolabel (Copying and graphic paper/Newsprint Paper) .................................................................................. 108 6 Proposed criteria areas ................................................................................... 110 6.1 Water consumption control ....................................................................... 110 6.1.1. Outcomes from and after the 1st AHWG meeting ................................. 111 6.2 EDTA and DTPA ....................................................................................... 112 6.3 Optical Brightening Agents ........................................................................ 113 7. Impact of changes to criteria ........................................................................... 115 References ....................................................................................................... 117 List of abbreviations and definitions ..................................................................... 127 List of figures .................................................................................................... 128 List of tables ..................................................................................................... 129 Appendices ....................................................................................................... 131 Appendix I. Forest Europe criteria and indicators (2015)..................................... 131 Appendix II. Azo dye restrictions ..................................................................... 133 Appendix III Guarantees of origin certification across Members States ................. 135 2 Abstract The current revised technical report (TR2.0) provides an update on the criteria revision, based on new information collected during the revision and provided by the involved parties (i.e. through stakeholders' discussion at the 1st AHWG meeting, further stakeholder inputs following the meetings, emission, energy, and chemical sub-groups co-operation followed by additional desk research). The most significant proposals and changes are: To merge the product groups copying and graphic paper , newsprint paper and tissue paper under one common group : paper products; To update current emission limits and scoring system for Criterion 1(a); To update or reformulate current AOX emission limits - Criterion 1(b); To update and reformulate energy consumption criterion and related CO2 emissions requirement – Criterion 1(c) and Criterion 2; To introduce a common ambition level for fibre sourcing criteria for all three product types (more ambitious for Copying and Graphic Paper and Tissue Paper but less restrictive for Newsprint Paper) – Criterion 3; To harmonize the chemical criterion according to recent findings of Chemical Task Force – Criterion 4. For criteria that addresses emissions to water and air and energy use, the recently published BREF document for pulp, paper and board products has been taken as the main reference for the revision of reference values. Further data from the license holders were gathered via responses to the 2nd questionnaire circulated by DG JRC. The emission and energy consumption requirements were discussed with dedicated sub-groups. For the above issues and