An ex-food product is a product created for human consumption, which, for various reasons, such as expiration, the presence of aesthetic defects, or simply because it has gone unsold, can no longer be used for its original purpose.
However, this food-product can be used for other purposes, such as as feed, thus to animal feed, or for energy production within biogas plants, so as to avoid its waste.
Community environmental policy instrument through which a periodic assessment of the level of compatibility between production activity and environmental protection is carried out.
Eco-auditing aims at a systematic evaluation of a company’s environmental policies and their effective implementation, carried out with the help of employees.
Environmental education is an educational process that aims to raise people’s awareness of environmental problems and provide them with the knowledge, skills and motivation necessary to adopt more sustainable and environmentally responsible behaviour.
The main objective is to promote a cultural change that leads to a greater awareness of the impact of human activity on the environment and a concrete commitment to reduce this effect.
Extended Producer Responsibility is a legal principle that requires manufacturers of goods to take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products, including final disposal.
In other words, manufacturers are required to manage their product even after it has been sold to the consumer.
REP encourages manufacturers to design products that can be safely and sustainably disposed of and implement waste management programs.
This implies that manufacturers must develop strategies for the recovery, recycling and management of their products at the end of their life cycle.
EEE (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) are objects composed of electrical and metallic elements that, for a correct functioning, need electric currents or electromagnetic fields, such as PCs, smartphones or washing machines.
Waste from these objects is called WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment).
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The end of life of a product refers to the phase in which a product has reached the end of its useful life and is disposed of or recycled.
In Linear Cycle systems, this moment coincides with the disposal of the product itself, while in the Circular Economy, waste is not seen as waste, but as a new input that re-enters the economic-productive circle, creating a closed system, where the scrap is the secondary raw material.
To improve end-of-life product management, many countries have introduced laws and regulations that require companies to manage their products sustainably.
This includes extended producer responsibility (EPR), which requires manufacturers to take responsibility for the management of their end-of-life products, including the collection, recycling and appropriate disposal of products.
In addition, the circular economy encourages the adoption of business models based on the provision of services rather than the sale of products.
In this way, the company takes charge of product management at the end of life, promoting repair, reuse or recycling, and can create new job opportunities and innovation.
Environmental Social Governance (ESG) is a set of criteria that are used by investors and companies to assess the degree of sustainability and social responsibility of business activities.
In particular, the ESG criteria are divided into three main categories: Environmental, Social and Governance.
The adoption of ESG criteria has become increasingly important in recent years, as these factors are increasingly relevant to investors and consumers who want to support companies with a sustainable footprint.
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Environmental certification is a certificate that certifies, through technical and regulatory criteria, a company’s commitment to limiting its negative impact on the environment.
Examples of certification are the Ecolabel, ISO 14001, EMAS, ISO 50001.
To obtain these recognitions, companies must apply to an authorised independent body. In Italy, authorisation is given by Accredia, the Italian Accreditation Body.
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The environmental label is a labelling and certification system that is used to identify products that have a reduced environmental impact compared to other similar products on the market.
The Environmental Label aims to declare the sustainability characteristics of a product or service.
They are fundamental tools to combat the practice of Green Washing by bodies, organizations and companies, so as to make communication to the final consumer as transparent as possible, so that they can make more sustainable purchasing choices.
In addition, the environmental label can also motivate companies to produce more sustainable products, as companies that obtain the environmental label can stand out from the competition and gain a reputation for sustainability.
In Europe, the most well-known environmental labelling system is the EU Ecolabel, which indicates that the product has been produced according to strict environmental standards established by the European Union.
The EU Ecolabel is a voluntary eco-label that is subject to certification by an independent organisation and is based on a set of scientifically established selection criteria that consider the environmental implications of goods or services for all their life cycle (competent body).
The European Union Ecolabel (EU Ecolabel) identifies goods and services that, while maintaining high performance requirements, are distinguished by a lower environmental impact over their entire life cycle.
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Environmental certification is a certificate that certifies, through technical and regulatory criteria, a company’s commitment to limiting its negative impact on the environment.
Examples of certification are the Ecolabel, ISO 14001, EMAS, ISO 50001.
To obtain these recognitions, companies must apply to an authorised independent body. In Italy, authorisation is given by Accredia, the Italian Accreditation Body.
The Environmental Label aims to declare the sustainability characteristics of a product or service.
They are fundamental tools to counteract the practice of Green Washing by authorities, organisations and companies, so as to make communication to the end consumer as transparent as possible, helping them in their purchasing choices.
Eco-efficiency is that process or set of processes that leads to the realisation of a product (understood as a physical product or service) trying to have the lowest possible environmental impact, starting from the abstraction of the raw material to the consumption and disposal of the object.
Although, Eco-efficiency improves resource productivity, it remains locked into the current production and consumption model and, in essence, makes the current linear model less negative.
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Eco-efficacy is used as a yardstick to assess the ability of a process or processes to achieve its objectives, while keeping its impacts and consequences on the ecosystems involved under control during the entire product life cycle.
The purpose of this tool is to create new solutions designed to be environmentally sound, so that human activity can have an impact that is good for the world.
Ecodesign (or sustainable design/engineering) is an economic model that involves the entire process of conception, design, sale on the market and disposal of an environmentally friendly product by reducing the negative impact it could have on the ecosystem to a minimum.
Consequently, the materials chosen must be sustainable and recyclable with the utmost respect for the environment and primary resources.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, founded in 2010 by Ellen MacArthur, is an international organisation that is a point of reference on issues such as sustainability and the circular economy.
Headquartered in the UK, it now works with major brands and organisations to accelerate the transition to a greener, circular economy by building partnerships and organising initiatives to raise community awareness on these issues.
The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a product-related environmental labelling (according to UNI ISO 14025:2006).
This label makes it possible to communicate objective, comparable and credible information about the environmental performance of products and services assessed according to the LCA analysis methodology.
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