Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a practice and a policy approach in which the responsibility for management of the disposal of products is borne by the producers after the products are used and are no longer useful. This responsibility may be fiscal, physical, or a combination of both of them for which there are certain economic, environmental, and social factors. Thus, producers have to bear the cost of disposal of the products. As per the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), there are two specific features associated with EPR—the shifting of responsibility for disposal from municipalities to producers and encouragement through incentives to make the design of products more environment-friendly.
Benefits of EPR
The policy of EPR offers economic, environmental, and social benefits. The cost of waste disposal increases manifold due to certain problems, such as rising levels of waste generation, technical requirements to landfill and incinerate the waste, and difficulty in building new waste disposal facilities due to public opposition, etc. The recyclability of products depends on product design. It becomes difficult to recycle such products that are not designed for dismantling and have high levels of toxic ingredients, or have components such as composite resins. Extended producer responsibility is aimed at incentivising producers to design products that are more environmental friendly. It also encourages producers to design products that are easily recycled or reused as the cost of disposal falls on them.