Development of EU ecolabel and GPP criteria for for soil improvers and growing media : technical report and draft criteria proposal

This technical report is aimed at providing a sound base to the revision process of the EU Ecolabel criteria for Soil improvers and Growing Media. Currently, separate sets of EU Ecolabel criteria exist for Soil improvers (Decision 2006/799/EC) and Growing media (Decision 2007/64/EC). The revision process spanned both product groups; thus common criteria for both Soil improvers and Growing media are developed, only distinguishing between technical product characteristics where necessary. Another objective of this revision is addressing the possibility to broaden the current scope to the product mulch, as it has been identified as a differentiated sub-product within the product group 'soil improvers'. To achieve those objectives, a Preliminary Report was produced together with the first version of this technical report as a working document. Hence, this document was developed to undergo the stakeholder consultation, which is crucial to come up with criteria adapted to the market reality while being able to select the best environmental performance products available on the market. After an extensive stakeholder's consultation process, this current version of the Technical Report supporting the draft criteria for growing media, soil improvers and mulch, constitutes the support of the criteria set voted positive by the Regulatory Committee.