The Road to Green is a Euronews magazine in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV). It features monthly 8-minute videos, delivered in a road trip format, covering Europe’s continuing transformation to a circular, net-zero, nature-positive and clean economy. In this episode of “The Road to Green”, Euronews explores the efforts made by consumers, businesses and policymakers to make sure products last longer and are more easily repairable.

Our current economic system is based on the "take-make-use-dispose" model. This leads to a throwaway culture, where many products do not last long and are discarded when they no longer work, damaging the environment and people’s wallets. How can products be more sustainable, and what does a circular economy mean in practice?

In the Netherlands, people are tired of products made to last for a short time, and they are tired of over-consumption. Consumer habits are changing. There are now thousands of repair cafés around the world, and Euronews visits one in Amsterdam - the city where the concept originated.

At one of Europe's most renowned design universities in Delft, Euronews explores the responsibility of designers in tomorrow's circular economy. Digging into the question of long-lasting electronics, Euronews visits Fairphone, a company that produces phones that are easy to dismantle and built to last.  

In Luxembourg, Euronews speaks to a member of the Ministry of the Economy on how information could be circulated from material producers to end consumers and how this ties into European legislation.

Discover also the latest EU Environment Newsletter by the European Commission on Sustainable Products.