An Extended Producer Responsability Schemes are a non-profit organisations that aim to be a key tool to encourage the proper management of waste and promote the circular economy among companies. We explain below everything you need to know about them.
What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)?
Before continuing with EPR schemes, it is essential to understand the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility.
Extended Producer Responsibility obliges the producer to prevent, manage and pay for the processing and recovery of everything that can become waste.
In this way, a concept known as “the polluter pays” is applied, meaning that the producer must introduce fewer products that are likely to become waste, as he will have to take charge of their processing at the end of the product’s useful life. In this way, the less waste a product generates, the less it will cost to recycle the waste.
What is an EPR scheme?
The responsibility for waste generation can be undertaken alone if they have the necessary means, or they can join with other organisations in the sector to manage it together. This is how an EPR scheme come into being.
EPR schemes are partnerships formed by several stakeholders to enable them to meet their Extended Producer Responsibility obligations. These systems are a set of measures and tools that seek to encourage the collection, management and recovery of waste. They are based on the idea that producers are responsible for the waste they generate, from the design of the product to the end of its useful life.
The aim is to prevent this waste from going to landfill and to maximise the amount of materials recovered.
Operation of the EPR scheme
The EPRSs establishes that producers and distributors must be responsible for the management of the waste they generate, from its collection to its treatment and recovery.
Depending on the type of waste generated, a system of extended producer responsibility is created. In each of them, producers must register and pay a fee to finance the collection, management and recovery of the waste generated by their products. At the same time, the EPRSs must guarantee the correct management of waste, as mentioned above, and comply with a series of objectives set by the regulations. These include the prevention of waste generation, reuse, recyclability and energy recovery.
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