Our course for 2025? Support circularity.

In 2025, Ecomaison intends to support circularity in the furniture sector, playing its role as a transition gas pedal to the full.

Analysis by Vincent du Granrut, industry manager.

What are the main principles of the 2024-2029 agreement for the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for waste furniture?

Firstly, it sets even more ambitious recycling and recovery targets, by material family, and collection targets by region. Above all, it emphasizes repair and reuse. To finance them, we are obliged to create dedicated funds. The Repair Fund is designed to reduce the cost of furniture repair for the French. To develop solidarity-based reuse, nearly 5% of contributions are allocated to a dedicated fund.

The agreement also introduces eco-participation modulations, also known as eco-modulations. This is a system of bonuses and penalties based on the product's environmental criteria. The aim is to encourage virtuous practices on the part of furniture manufacturers.

Lastly, it focuses on raising consumer awareness of the need for more responsible purchasing and storage behavior.

What opportunities does this new approval open up for Ecomaison and its members?

It encourages us to go even further in supporting our members, so that they become even more part of a circular economy.

Eco-modulation is a real opportunity for companies to improve the eco-design of their products. For these companies, setting up solutions to repair, take back or re-use their customers' furniture is an opportunity to consolidate their relationship with them and win their loyalty.

I'm convinced that a commitment to a more circular economy will help build lasting relationships and contribute to a company's long-term viability. This accreditation also opens up new possibilities for raising consumer awareness of sustainability issues in the furniture sector.

This new approval is fully in line with ADEME's EPR objectives, which aim to strengthen the circular economy.

What are the priorities for the furniture industry in 2025?

There are plenty of them! We're going to step up our efforts in the field of reuse, by supporting retailers' and manufacturers' projects , in particular through rebates, and by helping social economy organizations (SSEs) to increase their reuse capacities, in particular by launching new calls for expressions of interest with a budget of nearly €3 million per year. In the field, we will continue to forge links between these structures and retailers, in particular by setting up recycling containers.

We will also be extending our Repair Bonus to all furniture and continuing to roll out our label repairers.

Of course, we will continue to work onimproving the recyclability of our members' products and materials, such as mattresses and MDF panels. To accelerate the incorporation of recycled materials, we have developed an e-platform to make available materials derived from the waste we have recycled. Above all, we will be working alongside our members to encourage repair, reuse and recycling. Specialized market managers for each type of product will be joining our teams this year to further refine our expertise.

What specific initiatives will Ecomaison be launching to raise consumer awareness?

After a communications campaign to raise our profile at the end of 2024, in 2025 we'll be rolling out awareness-raising messages on second life. Collection operations will take place before the summer, in partnership with retailers, to present repair and reuse as new gestures to adopt on a daily basis.

We will also be communicating more specifically on bedding, in particular mattress recycling, and we plan to install containers in supermarkets to collect pillows, comforters and cushions.