BEST PRACTICE: EPR
Extended Producer
Responsibility
AS PUBLIC AWARENESS GROWS AROUND VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE GREEN ECONOMY – CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY, ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT, LIFECYCLE ANALYSIS AND RESOURCE OVER-CONSUMPTION, TO NAME BUT A FEW – THE ISSUE OF EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY (EPR) IS INCREASINGLY COMING UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT. Alistair Schorn
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ccording to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), EPR is an established environmental and waste management policy approach, under which producers accept significant responsibility – both financial and/or physical – for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products (OECD). If applied appropriately, EPR can be a strong policy instrument to promote direct environmental benefits, effective resource management and economic growth derived from traditional waste streams. It has been effectively applied over several decades in various countries, particularly in the European Union. Importantly, although EPR refers to producers as holding the primary responsibility for the products they manufacture, all stakeholders in the supply chain, right up to the end consumer, hold some degree of responsibility for their role in the life cycle of a product. Generally speaking, EPR programmes have proven to be most successful in circumstances in which a clearly defined legislative environment exists, and in which effective cooperation takes place between all stakeholders.
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According to EXPRA, the Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance, the 10 golden rules for EPR Schemes and the organisations responsible for managing these are: • T he essence of EPR is the producer’s responsibility for a product throughout its life cycle; • Product Responsibility Organisations (PROs) should be owned, run and steered by the obliged companies;
• PROs should be not-for-profit / profit-not-for-distribution; • Collectors, sorters or recyclers of waste should not be active as PROs, but should deliver services to the industries in which these PROs operate; • There should exist a strong EPR legal framework enforced by public authorities; • Successful EPR must be based on a partnership between public authorities and PROs;
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