An important step in the EU safe- and sustainable-by-design (SSbD) journey was concluded on July 15 with the release of the Technical Report Safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials - Framework for the definition of criteria and evaluation procedure for chemicals and materials.
Developed by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), the report lays out the criteria and procedure to be followed for an assessment of the safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials. It is one of the actions identified by the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability to reduce the harmful impacts that chemicals can have on human health and the environment; its overall goal is to support the design and development of SSbD chemicals and materials, thus steering R&I towards the green industrial transition.
The framework, which is not a regulatory instrument, will be tested in three case studies in the coming months, to identify any challenges and bottlenecks in its application. The application areas considered in the case studies will be non-phthalates plasticizers for food-contact materials; surfactants used in textile processing; and halogen-free flame retardants used in ICT products. The results will be presented in a stakeholder workshop in the autumn.
You can learn more here about the first two stakeholder workshops held in March 2021 and March 2022 respectively, as well as the feedback workshop held in May 2022.
