The European Refurbishment Association announces new members and the release of its first views on the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) at Mobile World Congress 2022

Barcelona, 3rd February 2022  

The association gathers and announces at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) its enlargement and shares its views on the Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, alongside pledging for a EU label on refurbished products. 

Eurefas welcomes 5 new members, namely Swappie, AfB Group, FixFirst, Rebuy and Remarketed, once again enlarging its scope of represented countries within the association. 

“Sustainability and circularity being core values of both Remarketed and EUREFAS, we’re proud to join the European Refurbishment Association. As part of this group of leading companies in refurbishment, Remarketed is looking forward to working on proposing legislative change to make Europe more sustainable, circular and environmentally friendly”, concludes Jeroen Frank Poelsma from Remarketed 

Philipp Gattner, CEO of rebuy says: “In order to significantly reduce further exploitation of our planet, we need to rethink the consumption of our resources. Unfortunately, this is still happening far too slowly at the political level. Therefore, we are proud to announce that we are now an active member of EUREFAS to give the refurbishing industry a stronger voice at the European level.“

“More circular economy and resource conservation through IT refurbishment – those are the guiding principles of AfB social & green IT and EUREFAS. We are therefore really looking forward to being part of this network, to meet like-minded companies and to contribute our experience from 17 years of IT refurbishment in five European countries”, Daniel Büchle, Managing Director at AfB (limited non-profit company) 

“70% of all emissions are associated with the manufacture and use of products – by accelerating refurbishment and the Right-to-Repair, we are laying the foundation for a Circular Economy that is essential to achieving our climate goals”, says Sebastien Daus, Cofounder and CEO of FixFirst

The Association now covers members from 12 countries thanks to the involvement of 16 innovative companies. According to the Commission, a circular economy such as refurbishment can actually create 700 000+ jobs in Europe by 2030.  

These arrivals are following the recent publication of Eurefas’ first position paper introducing how Refurbishment can support the Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan. This paper presents a set of possibilities to facilitate the development of refurbishment, from Helping and supporting refurbishment processes by encouraging collection schemes and respecting waste treatment hierarchy, to Giving customers a Right to repair. Generally speaking, Eurefas aims at facilitating access to refurbishment and encouraging people to give back their used products.  In this action plan, the role of public campaigns and authorities is crucial, and with its new members, Eurefas wishes to facilitate a global coordination to achieve the Green Deal and the CEAP. 

Following this will to ease and facilitate the recognition and development of refurbishment at the European Level, Eurefas is currently working on a new quality label and will soon publish a Pledge whose main purpose will be to structurate the Refurbishment market and the quality of its products. This initiative aims at saving consumers’ interests and promoting virtuous products. Eurefas targets providing this new quality Label by 2023 with the help of its internal members as well as seasoned external experts. 

Eurefas continues its momentum and is heading into a promising period filled with innovative projects and novelties for the refurbishment market and its members, to keep making the economy more circular in Europe.