Public consultation on Office and hobby supplies

Nordic Ecolabelling gives you the opportunity to comment on the proposal for criteria for Nordic Swan Ecolabelling for Office and hobby supplies. The ecolabelling is assessed based on a life cycle perspective and fulfil high environmental and health requirements. Your comments are important and will be considered by the national Ecolabelling boards and the Nordic Ecolabelling Board.

We look forward to your comments, which should be sent to the Nordic Ecolabelling no later than 1 May 2024 to be taken into consideration.

Please find the proposed criteria for download further down on this page.

What has been changed?

• Product group definition: Office supplies in mono-materials (e.g. ruler) are now included.
• Refill: Requirement for pens is changed (O2).
• Recycled or bio-based plastics: 
  • Required share of recycled content is increased from 30% to 60% by weight (O6).
  • New testing for harmful substances in recycled plastic (O7).
  • New requirement for raw materials for bio-based polymers (O8).
• Wood, bamboo, paper and cardboard:
  • Updated requirements for traceability and certified forestry (O11-O12).
• Chemical products:
  • Restricted classifications updated (O17-O18).
  • The list of prohibited substances updated (O19).
• Quality:
  • Requirements for writing length are tightened for most types of ballpoint and rollerball pens (O26).
  • New requirement for shelf life for marking pens, felt-tip pens and whiteboard pens (O27-O28).
  • New requirement on no lead breakage in pencil sharpening (O29-O30). 
• Consumer information: 
  • New requirement on text about horizontal storage on marking pens and felt-tip pens (incl. whiteboard pens) (O36).
• Packaging:
  • New requirement on mono-material of primary packaging and either 100% recycled or bio-based. In addition, labels on plastic packaging in same polymer as packaging. (O39).
  • New requirement on pictograms for recycling according to national pictogram system (O40).

We would like your input on the complete criteria, but want to especially highlight the following:

• Requirement O6 Recycled plastic, share.
• Requirement O7 Recycled plastic, test of harmful substances.
• Requirement O19 Prohibited substances.
• Requirements O26 Ballpoint and rollerball pens with ink or gel.
• Requirements O27 and O28 Marker pens, felt-tip pens and whiteboard pens (regarding shelf life).
• Requirement O29 Pencils and pencil leads (regarding sharpening).
• Requirement O39 Design of packaging.

Documents for download

• Criteria proposal (English)
• Main document, criteria and background to the proposal (English)

Please let us know if you prefer a hard copy, and we will send you one by mail.

Who can provide input?

All enterprises, institutions, or persons interested in the development of the criteria for Nordic Ecolabelling of Office and hobby supplies are welcome to submit comments.

We kindly ask you to share this consultation to anyone interested in the proposal, especially to suppliers for your products.

How can comments be sent in?

Your input is most valuable to our criteria development. We prefer to receive your answers via the form below, via mail or by e-mail to remiss@svanen.se

For further questions, please contact our Product Specialist Ulf Eriksson, +46 8-55 55 24 44

What happens next?

All comments will be examined and assessed at the end of the consultation period. Subsequently a revised proposal for criteria will be prepared. This proposal will be discussed by the Swedish Ecolabelling Board and national Ecolabelling Boards in the other four Nordic countries. The final decision on the criteria is made by the Nordic Ecolabelling Board, supported by the opinions of the national ecolabelling boards.

The material used for this process is, apart from the criteria proposal, a compilation of all the public consultation comments together with the responses from Nordic Ecolabelling. The summary will be public and available on the Ecolabelling Sweden’s web page in connection with the publication of the new criteria.

We are looking forward to receive your comments no later than 1 May 2024.