Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

OVERVIEW OF EXTENDEDPRODUCER

RESPONSIBILITY

Jim Mahon

Ontario Environment Network

Detoxifying the Economy & the Body Politic

Toronto, March 30, 2003

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

OVERVIEW OF EXTENDED PRODUCER

RESPONSIBILITY

• What is EPR?

• Why EPR?

• Policies embodying EPR

• Recent survey of EPR Programs

• Essential Elements of an Effective EPR Program

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

Raw Materials

Acquisition

Materials Manufacture

Product Design/

Manufacture

Product Use or Consumption

End of Life

Energy EnergyEnergy EnergyEnergy

Wastes Wastes

Product Recycling

Wastes Wastes

Reuse

WHAT IS EPR? THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY

• Term used by OECD, EU, Canada • Extended Producer Responsibility is the principle that

producers of products are responsible for the life-cycle environmental impacts of the whole product system, including upstream impacts inherent in the selection of materials for the products, impacts from the manufacturer’s production process itself, and downstream impacts from the use and disposal of the products.

• Focus on producers because in most cases have the greatest ability to reduce life-cycle environmental impacts.

• Producers accept their responsibility when they design their products to minimize the life-cycle environmental impacts, and when they accept the physical or economic responsibility for the environmental impacts that cannot be eliminated by design.

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP AND EXTENDED PRODUCT

RESPONSIBILITY

• Extended Product Responsibility and Product Stewardship used by US EPA; Environment Canada also uses Product Stewardship.

• Used to highlight shared responsibility--actors along product chain share responsibility.

• Minnesota: “Product stewardship means all parties with a role in designing, producing, selling or using a product assume responsibility for the environmental impacts of that product throughout its life. In particular, product stewardship requires manufacturers to share in the financial and physical responsibility for collecting and recycling products at the end of their useful lives.”

• Also used to distinguish voluntary agreements from mostly mandatory programs in Western Europe.

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ATTRIBUTES OF EPR

• Extends up and/or down the product chain

• Focuses on the product system, not just the production facility

• Shared and overlapping responsibilities among actors along the product chain

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RawMaterialsExtractionRawMaterialsProcessingManufacturingDistributionUseWasteManagement

EPR:DOWN THE CHAIN

EPR AS A PRINCIPLE FOR WASTE POLICY

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EPR:UP AND DOWN THE CHAIN

RawMaterialsExtractionRawMaterialsProcessingManufacturingDistributionUseWasteManagement

EPR AS A PRINCIPLE FOR PRODUCT POLICY

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MODELS OF EPR

• Product take back for waste management• Life-cycle partnerships for waste management• Materials selection• Materials management• Extended environmental management programs• Leasing systems• Delivering service and function instead of

products• Design-for-the-environment programs• Environmental purchasing

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

WHY EPR? SUSTAINABILITY

I = P x A x T

Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology

Affluence = Consumption/Person

T = Impact/Consumption

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LIMITS OF FACILITY-BASED AND WASTE-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL

CONTROLS

• Allows transfers of pollutants between environmental media

• Allows transfers of pollutants between life-cycle stages• Ignores materials selection• Ignores workplace health and safety• Ignores impacts in use of products • Ignores the end of life of products• Ignores resource use• Ignores energy use and greenhouse gases

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

TAKE-BACK POLICIES: GERMAN PACKAGING ORDINANCE

• Take back responsibility initially on retailers

• Created DSD to collect and recycle from households

• Packer/fillers pay fees based on costs of recycling materials

• Recycling quotas

• High rates achieved--68--92%

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EPR LEGISLATION OR AGREEMENTS FOR TAKE BACK

• PACKAGING– EU– Canada– Germany– The Netherlands– France– Austria– Denmark– Finland– Japan– Sweden– Norway

• AUTOMOBILES– EU– Germany– The Netherlands– Sweden– Austria

• ELECTRONICS– EU– The Netherlands– Norway– Sweden– Switzerland– Italy– Japan– Taiwan– Korea– Belgium

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

EPR LEGISLATION OR AGREEMENTS FOR TAKE BACK

• PAINTS, CHEMICALS– British Columbia

• RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES– Minnesota– Austria– Denmark– Germany– Korea– The Netherlands– Norway– Sweden– Switzerland– Belgium– United States– Canada

• CARPET– United States

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

BENEFITS AND DRIVERS FOR VOLUNTARY ADOPTION

• COST SAVINGS• DEMONSTRATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

STEWARDSHIP• PRODUCT INNOVATION• INCREASED CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND

SATISFACTION• GREEN MARKETING• LEGISLATION ABROAD• EXISTING FACILITY-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL

REGULATIONS• ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITIES

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

VOLUNTARY APPROACHES: THE GREEN LEASE

• Providing product function or service without transferring ownership of the product or materials

• Dematerializes the function• Remanufacturing instead of recycling• Xerox Copier Leasing; Interface Flooring

Systems Evergreen Lease

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EXAMPLE: XEROX

• Asset Recycle Management– Remanufacturing copiers from lease

program– saved $50 million in first year– Cartridge Return-1100 tons diverted in

1995

• Design for the Environment• Savings of > $200 million per year

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CONCLUSIONS FROM RECENT OECD STUDY OF IMPLEMENTATION OF EPR

• Characteristics of products affect the management of the EPR programs and their effectiveness.

• Mandatory programmes give better results in the case when desired recycling level is economically unprofitable.  

• Mandatory numerical collection/reuse/recycling targets have been effective in achieving higher results.

• Substance/landfill bans drive product re-design and development of alternative substances. 

• An effective and convenient collection system is a prerequisite for consumer participation.    

• Establishment of a financial mechanism for durable, complex products poses more challenges than that for non-durable, simple products.

• Individual financial responsibility presents an important opportunity to stimulate design changes if it works for the product system.

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

PRINCIPLES FOR APPLICATION OF PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP

1. The extension of responsibility should be done in such a way as to create effective feedback to product designers that stimulates the design of cleaner products.

2. EPR programs should take a life-cycle approach, and be directed at producing life-cycle benefits, even if they focus on end of life, so that environmental impacts are not increased or transferred somewhere else in the product chain.

3. There should be a well-defined focus of responsibility, so that the responsibility is not diluted out of existence.

Ontario Environment Network, Labour Caucus

Essential Elements of an Effective EPR Program

• Mandatory• Focus on products. • Assignment of responsibility. • Physical or financial responsibility. • Performance standards and deadlines. • Mandated phase-out of hazardous materials. • Ban waste disposal and exports. • Flexibility and accountability. • Historical waste.

• Complementary measures.