The EPR Scheme for Furniture

The furniture elements sector, known as DEA, imposes strict collection and recovery obligations on any company placing furniture on the French market.

Operational since 2013, this scheme has genuinely transformed the sector: eco-contribution scales adjusted to a product’s environmental characteristics, combined with a dense network of collection points, have dropped furniture’s landfill rate from 55% to less than 3%.

This article covers who’s concerned, how the eco-contribution is calculated, and how the collection and reuse network actually works.

Summarize this article with:

🎯 TL;DR: The DEA Furniture Scheme

• The DEA scheme covers 12 furniture categories, from seating to bedding, garden furniture, and textile decoration.
• Three eco-organizations are approved for 2024-2029: Ecomaison (the largest, around 1.2 million tons a year), Valdelia (focused on professional furniture), and Valobat (a newer, cross-scheme entrant).
• The regulatory collection target from 2026 is 48% of market placements.
• Since the scheme’s creation, furniture’s landfill rate has fallen from 55% to under 3%, largely thanks to reuse and repair networks.

🔍 How We Checked This

The eco-organization approvals (Ecomaison, Valdelia, Valobat) run through the 2024-2029 period, with OCABJ as coordinating body approved through December 31, 2029. The 48% collection target and the recycled-content bonus (from July 2024) reflect the current specification at the time of writing. The 1.2 million tons and 68,000 tons figures are the volumes reported by Ecomaison and Valdelia respectively for their most recent reporting year; check current figures against your eco-organization directly.

🛋️ A Furniture Sector Generating a Huge Deposit

Who has to declare furniture elements?

Among the roughly twenty EPR schemes that exist at the time of writing, DEA concerns companies selling furniture on the French market, whether for households or professionals. Manufacturers producing tables, chairs, wardrobes, or sofas, importers bringing these products in from abroad, and distributors selling under their own brand all fall within scope.

The scope covers twelve distinct categories, from seating to bedding, garden furniture, and storage. Since July 2022, textile decoration elements have also joined the scheme, widening producer obligations further. Furniture companies now build this constraint into their value chain from design through to sale, not as an afterthought.

The annual declaration and a choice of three eco-organizations

Three eco-organizations, approved for the 2024-2029 period, serve the market:

1. Ecomaison, formerly Eco-mobilier, is by far the largest, collecting around 1.2 million tons a year.
2. Valdelia focuses mainly on professional furniture, with 68,000 tons collected in 2023.
3. Valobat, approved in December 2023, is the newest entrant, offering a transversal approach that consolidates obligations across several EPR schemes at once.

The coordinating body OCABJ, approved through December 31, 2029, keeps the three eco-organizations coherent with each other and offers local authorities a single point of contact. That coordination also simplifies things for multi-scheme producers, who can centralize memberships through a shared interface. The annual DEA declaration details volumes placed on the market by product category, each carrying its own eco-contribution, calculated per unit or by weight depending on the family.

💶 How the Eco-Contribution Is Calculated

The 2026 scales and environmental modulations

The new scales effective from January 1, 2026 serve three purposes at once: hitting a regulatory collection target of 48% of market placements, funding the expansion of the collection point network, and massively growing reuse and repair activity. These constraints show up as targeted adjustments on certain product families rather than a flat across-the-board increase.

Valdelia keeps its eco-contribution below 2% of the sale price for most products, with specific scales for items like metal roller cabinets, school seating, bed bases, or acoustic booths. Ecomaison structures its rates around a circularity logic, with modulations based on recycled material content and materials sourced from sustainable resource management.

Bonuses for incorporating recycled materials

Contributions have been modulated since July 2024 based on hitting recycled-content thresholds. A manufacturer using at least 30% recycled wood in its furniture earns a reduction on its unit contribution, a bonus designed to push recycled plastic, secondary-melt metals, and regenerated textiles into manufacturing. The article code structure itself hasn’t changed, so the financial support is built directly into the product code or applied as a separate bonus, and the code generators eco-organizations provide let members calculate their contribution precisely for each product reference.

Eco-organization	Focus	Approximate volume
Ecomaison (formerly Eco-mobilier)	General furniture, largest operator	~1.2 million tons/year
Valdelia	Professional furniture	68,000 tons (2023)
Valobat	Cross-scheme, newer entrant	Approved December 2023

♻️ Collection Organization and Priority to Reuse

The collection network and the one-for-one obligation

Furniture waste recovery runs through a dense network combining public waste sites, distributors, and social and solidarity economy actors. Distributors above certain sales-area thresholds carry a free take-back obligation on a one-for-one basis: a customer buying a new sofa can have their old one taken back free, either in-store or when the new furniture is delivered.

After years of mixed collection in a single bin, eco-organizations are gradually rolling out separate collection by material. Metal furniture now goes into a dedicated bin managed by local authorities. Wooden furniture goes into a multi-scheme bin shared with wood from other EPR schemes, such as construction. Other furniture components, foam, textiles, plastics, get collected in a third bin to optimize how they’re recovered.

Priority to reuse and repair

Still-functional furniture is a priority stream for eco-organizations, which have built out extensive partnerships with resource centers, recycling centers, and work-integration structures. These actors recover furniture in good condition, refurbish it where needed, and sell it at solidarity prices, extending its lifespan before any material transformation happens.

A repair fund, financed annually by eco-organizations, supports certified repairers who refurbish defective furniture, with annual targets to grow the number of repairs. Since the scheme was created, the landfill rate has dropped from 55% in 2013 to under 3% today, real evidence of how much progress the recovery network has made. Furniture that can’t be repaired goes through a dismantling process that separates wood, metals, textiles, and foam to maximize how much gets recycled into new raw materials.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions About the Furniture EPR Scheme

Which eco-organization should I choose for furniture?

Ecomaison is the largest and covers general furniture; Valdelia focuses on professional furniture; Valobat is a newer, cross-scheme option. The right choice depends on your product mix and whether you’re also subject to other EPR schemes.

Do I have to take back a customer’s old furniture?

If you’re a distributor above certain sales-area thresholds, yes, you carry a free one-for-one take-back obligation when a customer buys new furniture.

How can I reduce my eco-contribution?

Using at least 30% recycled wood, plastic, or metal earns a reduction under the recycled-content bonus, applied per product reference through your eco-organization’s code generator.

What’s the current furniture collection target?

The regulatory target from 2026 is 48% of market placements, part of a broader push to fund collection network expansion and reuse and repair activity.

What happens to furniture that can’t be reused?

It goes through a dismantling process that separates wood, metals, textiles, and foam so each material can be recycled into new raw materials.

Get Your Furniture EPR Compliance Sorted

The DEA scheme has genuinely reshaped what happens to furniture at end of life, and it keeps tightening: higher collection targets, stronger recycled-content incentives, and growing reuse and repair networks. Whether you’re launching a furniture line or already selling at scale, getting your eco-organization membership and declarations right from the start avoids surprises later.

Start your free trial with Ekovio to manage your furniture EPR compliance and track your eco-contribution.