What do you buy (or not) with eco vouchers from 1 March 2021?

Recently, the National Labour Council has re-examined the list of products and services that can be purchased with eco vouchers. Following the revision of the European energy label, a change to this list was indeed necessary.

The National Labour Council also took the opportunity to add a number of interesting new products to the list (subscriptions to allotment gardens, cosmetics carrying the ‘Ecogarantie’ label, textile products carrying the GOTS label, etc.) and to clarify a few things. Finally, peat and topsoil containing peat were removed from the list.

Below, we will provide a brief overview of the most important changes from 1 March 2021.

Overview of changes

Energy-saving electronic appliances

As a result of a European decision, the categories A+, A++ and A+++ are replaced by a simpler scale from A to G. This is the new list of energy-efficient electronic appliances:

• Household refrigerating appliances of classes A, B, C or D;
• Household dishwashers of classes A, B or C;
• Household washing machines and household tumble dryers of class A;
• Electronic displays including TVs and monitors of classes A, B, C or D;
• All other electronic appliances with a European energy label for classes A+, A++, A+++;
• All electronic appliances placed on the market before 1 November 2020 with only the European energy label classes A+, A++ or A+++ and which can be sold until 30 November 2021.

Extension of the organic products section

The list of organic products is extended to include:

• all products carrying the ‘Ecogarantie’ label (cosmetics, hygiene and care products, maintenance products);
• all products carrying the COSMEBIO label and displaying a ‘bio’ logo;
• all MSC labelled seafood products;
• all textile products carrying the GOTS label.

Sustainable gardening

Peat and topsoil containing peat can no longer be purchased with eco vouchers from 1 March 2021.

Subscriptions and affiliations for allotment gardens, on the other hand, are added to this section.

Reuse, recycling and waste prevention

Buying second-hand products with eco vouchers was already possible, but now these products can also be rented under the same conditions (e.g. hire of equipment for parties and receptions, travel accessories, tools and small electronic appliances, etc.).

Additional

The filters that are essential for the proper functioning of certain products can also be purchased with eco vouchers.

Clarifications

The National Labour Council also clarifies that smart plugs, vermicomposters (= a worm bin) and refurbished ICT equipment can be purchased with eco vouchers.

The complete list of products and services which can be purchased with eco vouchers can be found on the website of the National Labour Council: http://www.cnt-nar.be/CAO-COORD/cao-098.pdf.

Source: National Labour Council Opinion No. 2200; Collective Labour Agreement No. 98/7.