Introduced in 2020, the AGEC Law — France’s Anti-Waste Law For A Circular Economy — is reshaping the way organizations design, purchase, manage, reuse, and dispose of products. The law aims to move France away from the linear “produce, consume, throw away” model and toward a more circular economy based on waste reduction, reuse, repair, and recycling.

In 2025, several obligations under the AGEC regulation continue to expand, especially around extended producer responsibility, professional packaging, textile waste, unsold non-food goods, transparency, and office furniture management. In this article, we explain what the AGEC Law is, who it applies to, and how companies worldwide can prepare for any new anti-waste requirements.

What Exactly Is the AGEC Law?

The AGEC Law is the common name for Law No. 2020-105 of February 10, 2020, relating to the fight against waste and the circular economy. It was created to reduce waste, preserve natural resources, promote reuse, and accelerate the transition toward more sustainable production and consumption models.

The AGEC regulation is structured around five major pillars: phasing out single-use plastic, improving consumer information, fighting waste and promoting solidarity-based reuse, taking action against planned obsolescence, and producing more responsibly. Its implementation follows a progressive timeline, with key milestones between 2021 and 2040, including the long-term goal of eliminating single-use plastic packaging.

What Are the Goals of the Anti-Waste Law for a Circular Economy?

The anti-waste law for a circular economy sets both practical and structural objectives for companies, public bodies, distributors, producers, and consumers. It also aligns with broader European expectations around waste reduction, circularity, repairability, and environmental transparency.

Among the main goals of the AGEC Law are the reduction of waste volumes, the development of reuse and recycling, and the gradual phase-out of single-use plastics. The law also prohibits the destruction of unsold non-food goods and requires companies to prioritize reuse, donation, or recycling instead.

The AGEC regulation also extends extended producer responsibility, known as REP in France, to more product categories. These include packaging, furniture, textiles, toys, sporting goods, DIY and gardening products, and other sectors where producers, importers, and distributors must contribute to end-of-life collection and treatment.

AGEC Law And Unsold Non-Food Goods

The AGEC Law has significantly changed the way companies manage unsold non-food inventory. This is especially important for retailers, e-commerce companies, brands, producers, importers, and distributors that handle consumer goods at scale.

Ban On Destruction: Which Products Are Covered?

Since January 1, 2022, companies have been prohibited from destroying unsold non-food products covered by the relevant categories, and these goods must instead be reused, donated, repurposed, or recycled. The rule initially applied to many products already covered by an extended producer responsibility scheme and later expanded more broadly to non-food goods.

Products affected by the AGEC regulation include hygiene and childcare products, books, school supplies, leisure products, household goods, textiles, home linen, shoes, furniture, electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, and graphic papers. The goal is to prevent the destruction of unsold non-food goods worth hundreds of millions of euros each year and to avoid avoidable greenhouse gas emissions linked to wasteful disposal.

Priority for Donation and the Social Economy

Under the AGEC Law, companies must prioritize reuse where possible, particularly through donations to organizations that support people in vulnerable situations. For some categories, such as hygiene and childcare products, donation is especially important because these products can directly support households facing financial hardship.

For businesses, this means mapping unsold stock flows, forecasting volumes, doing demand analysis, identifying eligible products, and building long-term partnerships with charities, reuse platforms, or social economy organizations. A compliant AGEC process should make it clear which products were donated, reused internally, recycled, or sent to an approved waste treatment channel.

Who Is Affected by the AGEC Law?

Contrary to what many companies assume, the AGEC Law does not only apply to large industrial producers. It affects a broad range of economic actors, including manufacturers, importers, distributors, e-commerce businesses, public buyers, local authorities, and companies that use furniture, equipment, packaging, or professional textiles.

Economic Actors

The AGEC regulation affects producers, importers, and distributors that place products subject to extended producer responsibility on the French market. This includes products such as packaging, electrical equipment, furniture, textiles, toys, sporting goods, DIY items, and gardening products.

Companies that place industrial and commercial packaging on the market are also affected by the expanding REP framework for professional packaging. These companies must help organize and finance the collection, sorting, reuse, and recycling of products or packaging at the end of life, usually through approved eco-organizations or equivalent systems.

Retailers and e-commerce companies are also directly concerned when they manage unsold non-food goods. Under the AGEC Law, these businesses must avoid destruction and establish clear routes for donation, reuse, repurposing, or recycling.

Local Authorities, Public Buyers, And User Companies

The AGEC Law also affects local authorities, public buyers, and organizations that consume or manage large volumes of products. Public bodies are expected to include more reused, reused-again, or recycled-content products in their purchasing policies, especially in categories such as furniture and office equipment.

Private companies are affected as well, even when they are not producers. Any company managing office furniture, workwear, equipment, packaging, or professional waste streams may need better internal processes for sorting, traceability, reuse, and disposal.

In practice, the AGEC Law now touches a large share of the French economy. SMEs are increasingly affected through obligations linked to transparency, unsold goods, waste sorting, professional packaging, and asset lifecycle management.

Employee researches AGEC Law on his laptop

AGEC Law 2025: What Really Changes?

In 2025, several provisions of the anti-waste law for a circular economy either enter into force or become more operational for companies. The most relevant areas for businesses are extended producer responsibility, professional packaging, textile waste, environmental transparency, and proof of compliance.

Expansion Of REP And Professional Packaging

From 2025, extended producer responsibility continues to expand to additional product and packaging categories. The REP scheme for industrial and commercial packaging was scheduled to enter into force in 2025, meaning companies placing these types of packaging on the market become responsible for contributing to their end-of-life collection and treatment.

At the same time, REP schemes continue to develop or strengthen for categories such as DIY and gardening items, toys, sporting goods, oils, and sanitary textiles. This expansion is designed to improve collection, reuse, and recycling in product streams that were previously less structured.

Textile Waste Sorting and Environmental Transparency

The AGEC regulation also increases pressure on companies to improve waste sorting and traceability. Professional textile waste, such as workwear, linens, and production offcuts, requires dedicated collection and recovery channels when companies generate these flows.

Environmental transparency is another important area. The AGEC Law introduced stronger expectations around product information, including repairability, durability, recyclability, and environmental claims. Companies that make misleading environmental claims or fail to comply with certain obligations may face administrative penalties, including fines that can reach 15,000€ for a legal entity in specific cases.

Focus: AGEC Law For Office Furniture

Office furniture and interior fittings are directly affected by the AGEC Law, both from the perspective of producers and distributors and from the perspective of public and private buyers. Furniture is also one of the asset categories where companies can make circularity more tangible by extending useful life, reassigning items internally, and documenting reuse.

Since January 1, 2022, businesses can no longer destroy unsold non-food goods, including furniture, when those goods can be reused, donated, repurposed, or recycled. In practical terms, companies need a reliable overview of what furniture they own, where it is located, what condition it is in, and whether it can be reused internally before purchasing new items.

Furniture Take-Back Obligations

The AGEC Law also introduced take-back obligations for distributors in the furniture sector. Depending on store size, sales channel, and purchase context, distributors may have to take back used furniture free of charge when customers purchase similar products.

For companies buying or replacing office furniture, this creates both an obligation and an opportunity. Instead of treating furniture as a disposable expense, organizations can document the full lifecycle of desks, chairs, cabinets, meeting tables, and storage units, from purchase and assignment to repair, reuse, donation, or recycling.

Sustainable Furniture and Public Procurement

The AGEC Law and related implementing rules set progressive targets for the integration of products from reuse, repurposing, or recycled materials in public procurement. This is especially relevant for public buyers purchasing furniture, office equipment, and interior fittings.

For public buyers, the AGEC regulation means that circularity criteria must become part of procurement decisions. These criteria can include second-life furniture, repairability, recycled materials, modularity, spare parts availability, and documentation proving the environmental quality of the purchase.

How Timly Helps Manage Furniture Under the AGEC Law

To meet the requirements of the AGEC Law for office furniture, companies need a clear, real-time view of their entire asset portfolio. Timly supports this by centralizing all relevant information about office furniture and equipment in one digital asset management platform.

With Timly, every item of furniture or equipment receives a digital asset file that can be accessed via QR code or barcode scan. This makes it easier to carry out inventories, track movements, assign furniture to employees or locations, and identify underused workstations, chairs, desks, cabinets, or meeting room equipment.

Timly can also help companies document internal reuse, transfers between sites, donations, repairs, and exits into recycling channels. This is particularly useful when a business needs to demonstrate compliance with the AGEC regulation, show traceability, or justify why an asset was reused, donated, recycled, or removed from service.

The maintenance management platform also includes inspection and planning features that help extend the useful life of furniture and equipment. By structuring asset data in one interface, Timly helps organizations reduce waste, avoid unnecessary purchases, improve operational visibility, and support the goals of the anti-waste law for a circular economy.

Main AGEC Obligations by Topic

Topic Main AGEC Obligations Actors Affected
Single-Use Plastic Gradual reduction and phase-out of many disposable plastics, especially packaging. Manufacturers, market placers, distributors, food service, local authorities.
REP And Recycling Expansion of extended producer responsibility to more products, professional packaging, textiles, and other categories. Producers, importers, distributors, companies using these products.
Unsold Non-Food Goods Ban on destruction, with priority given to reuse, donation, repurposing, or recycling. Retailers, e-commerce companies, brands, producers of consumer goods.
Furniture And Public Procurement Take-back obligations and increasing focus on reused, repurposed, or recycled-content furniture. Furniture distributors, public buyers, local authorities, user companies.
Environmental Transparency Stronger information requirements around repairability, durability, recyclability, and environmental impact. Market placers, product manufacturers, and sectors subject to environmental information rules.

FAQs About AGEC Law

The AGEC Law is France’s anti-waste law for a circular economy, adopted in 2020 to reduce waste, phase out single-use plastics, improve consumer information, promote reuse, and develop recycling. It is officially Law No. 2020-105 of February 10, 2020.

The main goal of the AGEC Law is to move from a “produce, consume, throw away” model to a circular economy. It promotes waste reduction, reuse, recycling, repair, reduced use of single-use plastic, and more transparent environmental information.

AGEC compliance means that a company meets its relevant obligations under the AGEC regulation. This may include waste sorting, recycling, management of unsold non-food goods, participation in REP schemes, product transparency, traceability, and circular procurement practices.

The main AGEC Law 2025 changes relate to the expansion of REP schemes, professional packaging obligations, stronger waste sorting expectations, and increased transparency requirements. Industrial and commercial packaging is one of the important areas affected by the 2025 REP expansion.

The anti-waste law for a circular economy affects producers, importers, distributors, e-commerce companies, retailers, public buyers, local authorities, and many companies that manage products, packaging, unsold goods, furniture, textiles, or waste streams. Companies placing products subject to REP on the French market are especially concerned.

Companies should avoid destroying unsold or reusable furniture and should prioritize reuse, donation, repurposing, or recycling when furniture leaves the organization. They should also maintain clear documentation of furniture location, condition, lifecycle status, and disposal route to support traceability and AGEC compliance.