Extended Producer Responsibility and the EU Packaging Waste Ordinance

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an idea that can lead to the producer of products or services monitoring and adjusting the life cycle of their business as a whole. The premise of EPR is that if the producer is responsible for their goods throughout their life cycle, they will ensure efficient use of resources in the production recovery, and reuse of the product. A clear definition of EPR is provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Economic Development. It states EPR is, "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."

One gaol of EPR is to have products manufactured that are easy to recycle. If a company is responsible for the recycling of their own products, they will want to ensure that the products can be recycled cheaply. Cheap recycling can be facilitated by using products that are less energy intensive to recycle and do not have varying materials in them which require more steps for recycling to take place. Designing products that naturally biodegrade may be the most efficient route. All of these strategies limit stress on landfills, and associated environmental problems .

Origins of The EU's Packaging Waste Ordinance

The formation of the EU's packaging waste ordinance can be traced to the Federal Government of Germany's Waste Avoidance and Waste Management Act passed on August 27, 1986. This was a reaction to a substantial reduction of landfill capacities. The goal was to decrease waste production and increase recycling of waste that was produced, thus avoiding disposal when possible. This legislation did not turn out to be very useful in addressing the problem of waste disposal, though it did introduce the concept of product responsibility. More discussions and research followed and the waste problem was not improving. It was estimated by the German Federal Environment Ministry that disposal capacity would be met between two and five years. Parliament passed the Ordinance on the Avoidance of Packaging Waste in June 1991.

Packaging was the first industry the German government addressed because it accounted for about 50% by volume of the country's municipal solid waste. The 1991 Ordinance set out to close substance cycles using the "polluter pays" principle. All of the packaging waste was now to be dealt with outside of the traditional municipal collection system. This means the financial burden of product waste recovery was shifted from the public sector to the industrial sector. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment website states

"Product responsibility is at the heart of waste management policy in Germany. Through this the conditions for an effective and environmentally sound waste avoidance and recovery are already created in the production stage."

This-in theory- would force industry to take how they package materials and the ability to reuse, recycle or incinerate these materials seriously.

How is The EU Packaging Waste Ordinance Working?

Recycling initiatives have been met and exceeded in EU countries since the inception of the 1994 EU directive. The issue, as stated on the European Environment Agency website, is that per capita volume of packaging waste is still increasing. Germany still displays one of the highest per capita packaging waste numbers in the union. The data on packaging waste volume compared to GDP growth for the entire EU, does show that wastes of glass, metal, paper and plastics are not rising as fast as GDP. This may be pointing to an overall trend of package waste reduction. Time will tell.

References:

Fishbein, B. K. (1994). Germany, Garbage and the Green Dot: Chanllenging the Throwaway Society. Cincinnatti: INFORM, Inc.

German Federal Ministry for the Environment. (2005, June). Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Retrieved December 2, 2008, from Waste management: http://www.bmu.de/english/waste_management/doc/3432.php

Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development. Environment Directorate. http://www.oecd.org/document/19/0,3343,en_2649_34281_35158227_1_1_1_1,00.html (accessed December 16, 2009).