Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy that makes producers responsible for the entire life cycle of the products that they introduce on the market, importantly, from their design until end of life (including waste collection and recycling). Under EPR regulations, liable companies must mitigate the environmental impacts of their products throughout the entire product life cycle.

At its core, EPR is governments’ response to the increasing amounts of waste in our environment, and their efforts to place responsibility for the post-consumer phase of goods onto the actual producers of those goods. It is thought that this policy, which passes a level of administration and/or financial and/or physical responsibility for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products, on to the actual producers, will provide incentives to prevent waste at source, and encourage design that supports the achievement of public recycling and materials management objectives.

The EU’s new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products (ESPR) and Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will see more product and packaging groups fall within the scope of EPR. The EU’s enforcement of EPR schemes has also been quite disjointed as individual Member States have their own jurisdiction, regulation, EPR frameworks and schemes. Countries globally have either implemented or are in the process of implementing their own EPR schemes, many following broadly the regulation established in the EU.

Compliance with these schemes can be confusing and time consuming, understanding whether there is an obligation to register and pay the levy. GTD is increasingly removing this burden from small businesses by determining whether their goods and packaging are with in scope and then undertaking all of the registration and reporting requirements on their behalf.