National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 17902:2023.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee FW/0, Furniture.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 December 2023.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 20 November 2023.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 17902:2023) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 207 “Furniture”, the secretariat of which is held by UNI.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by June 2024, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by June 2024.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

This document aims to support the furniture manufacturers in aligning their product (3.1) and development processes with circular economy (CE) through the ability to dis/re-assembly a product, which is an enabler of several CE aspects namely replaceability, upgradability, reuse, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing, recycling.

These CE aspects allow to develop long lasting products and to enable the extension of the product lifespan and the circular flow of products by recovering, retaining, or adding to their value and thus maintaining their usability for as long as possible and reducing the consumption of primary resources.

Under circular economy framework, a degree of alignment with the CE principles is connected to implementation of CE aspects. Understanding of the implementation requires different evaluation methodologies for each key aspect. This is the first of a series of standards planned to be published by CEN/TC 207-Furniture. Each standard will provide an evaluation methodology for one or more relevant CE aspects. The document can be used as a guide by furniture manufacturers and/or product designers to understand dis/re-assembly capability of their design.

Product design brings complex trade-off decisions. For example, a product could be designed to last several decades that it is not intended to be dis- and re-assembled. This doesn’t mean that the product is less circular than another product. This situation shows the importance of a complete evaluation according to different aspects of CE and circular product design criteria.

This document provides a guidance on

How to determine a priority part (3.3) (see Clause 4);
What criteria should be considered for a damage-free and easy dis/re-assembly operation (see Clause 5);
The proposed classes to assess each criteria.

It should be noted that there can be differences concerning the appropriateness and assessment of some criteria when considering end use of some furniture such as domestic use, use by vulnerable groups or commercial use. Similarly, this applies in cases where, for safety reasons, the ability to disassemble and reassemble the product applies to groups of users and their skills sets as defined by the manufacturer.

As noted, some types of furniture may not be suitable for dis/re-assembly by the end user, such as upholstered furniture, which may need a trained/educated person or specialist to re-upholster a product, or work with electrically operated furniture which may pose serious safety risk during dis/re-assembly process. The previously exemplified framework conditions should not mean that a product is less “circular” than another but should allow the manufacturer the ability to address these issues and/or enable corresponding service offers by economic operators.

The safety and performance of most furniture can be aided by the use of suitable standards developed within the technical committee, CEN/TC 207 - Furniture.

This document includes an informative annex:

Annex A: Content of dis/re-assembly instructions.

1 Scope

This document provides guidelines for one aspect of circular economy framework; disassembly and reassembly capability.

This document establishes a set of criteria on which to base an assessment of the ability to access and remove/replace/reassemble priority parts of products. The criteria provided are intended to be used when designing a product and are applicable to different designs, materials, or construction methods.

This document does not include requirements.

The document does not apply to disassembly operation for the sole purpose of separating the individual materials.

This document does not provide a method to evaluate the overall degree of circularity of furniture products. For this, additional complementary evaluation methods for other aspects are necessary.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Priority part determination

4.1 General principals

4.2 Functions

4.3 Surfaces and covers

4.4 Procedure of priority part determination

5 Criteria

5.1 General

5.2 Classes of criteria

Bibliography

BS EN 17902:2023

Furniture. Circularity. Evaluation method for dis/re-assembly capability

Current

Published:

31 Dec 2023