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Extended
Producer Responsibility Workshop February, 2008 |
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What
is Extended Producer Responsibility? The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines EPR as an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility, physical and/or financial, for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. There are two key features of EPR policy: (1) the shifting of responsibility (physically and/or economically, fully or partially) upstream to the producer and away from municipalities, and (2) to provide incentives to producers to take environmental considerations into the design of the product. The OECD identifies a number of guiding principles for EPR. "EPR was identified as a principle and strategy for waste minimization at the 1995 Waste Minimization Workshop held in Washington D.C. In this context, the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility would be stated as: Producers of products should bear a significant degree of responsibility (physical and/or financial) not only for the environmental impacts of their products downstream from the treatment and/or disposal of the product, but also for their upstream activities inherent in the selection of materials and in the design of products. |