Extended Producer Responsibility

OECD defines Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. An EPR policy is characterised by:

1. the shifting of responsibility (physically and/or economically; fully or partially) upstream toward the producer and away from municipalities; and

2. the provision of incentives to producers to take into account environmental considerations when designing their products.

While other policy instruments tend to target a single point in the chain, EPR seeks to integrate signals related to the environmental characteristics of products and production processes throughout the product chain.

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, 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.