Chances are, you already know what an EPR isâat least, youâve likely encountered it before whether you realized it or not. Short for âextended producer responsibility,â youâve seen it and used it with products like car batteries or old television sets. Manufacturers or producers of a particular product get tasked with managing the end of the life cycle for these items. This means they must handle the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products, and with that added responsibility, the overall hope is that theyâll put more consideration into reducing waste from the very beginning by designing a product and packaging with eco-friendliness in mind.
âBasically, it transfers the cost from either the city, town, or individual themselves who contract to have their waste or recycling picked up to the brand owner who actually puts the product on the market,â explained Victor Bell, US Managing Director of Environmental Packaging International/Lorax Compliance.
EPRs started in EuropeâSweden, to be exact, in 1990âand today they are mandatory in many countries there, as well as the Middle East. Places like Brazil and Colombia are starting to put EPRs into place, and China and India will have them in 2022. Our northern neighbor, Canada, has heaps of them (reports say at least 200 programs), but it just hasnât quite caught on here in the good olâ U. S. of A.
