New Aspects of EPR: Extending producer responsibility to additional product groups
and challenges throughout the product lifecycle
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that makes producers responsible
for their products at the post-consumer stage of the lifecycle. It has been widely
adopted by governments and companies across the OECD membership and beyond and is
currently most commonly used for electronics, packaging, vehicles, and tyres. The
success of EPR in increasing material recovery rates has triggered a debate about
expanding the use of EPR to additional product groups. Additionally, there is a debate
about expanding producer responsibilities to additional impact categories, which go
beyond the traditional use of EPR to cover end-of-life costs that occur at the domestic
level. This paper presents a discussion of relatively novel applications of EPR to
additional product groups (plastic products beyond packaging, textiles, construction
materials, and food waste) and to environmental impacts (design considerations, pollution
and littering) that occur throughout the product lifecycle. Based on select case studies,
this report evaluates the successes and challenges that early adopters of applying
the EPR approach to new product groups or additional environmental impact categories
have experienced. It reviews the arguments for further application of EPR, possible
limitations and provides guidance on when and how to best apply an EPR.
Available from November 09, 2023
In series:OECD Environment Working Papersview more titles