Shifting Responsibility from Consumers to Manufacturers
What is EPR?
Extended Producer Responsibility aims to decrease the total environmental impact of a product. While there are challenges facing the implementation and regulation of EPR programs, some companies and communities have figured out solutions.
Today, we design both products and packaging to be “disposable”, with little consideration of the true environmental impact or influence on human health. By rethinking the way we consume, and by shifting the responsibility of product management back to the manufacturer, we can begin to address these issues—designing out waste rather than generating it.
For many people, extended producer responsibility (EPR) is exactly the policy approach needed to achieve this, placing increased emphasis on the entire lifecycle of a product and encouraging manufacturers to keep resources in the loop for as long as possible through product stewardship. But what is extended producer responsibility and how does it work? Here we dive in.
