What is Extended Producer Responsibility?
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that makes producers responsible for their products along the entire lifecycle, including at the post-consumer stage1. This specially designed environmental policy approach shifts the burden of managing certain end-of-life products from municipalities and taxpayers to the producers who place those products in the market.
Why is it important?
Beyond the end-of-life management stage, EPR also has the capacity in stimulating greater engagement of producers in the overall redesign of products and packaging, with the ultimate aim of reducing waste; thus mitigating environmental and health impacts.
UNEP-IETC action on EPR
UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) has been organizing a series of workshops to enhance capacity and knowledge of Member States, as a tool to accelerate circular economy and improve waste management in those countries. These events are particularly aimed at developing regions, as a platform for countries to discuss their local circumstances and share good practices and challenges, allowing the establishment of effective EPR schemes adapted to local contexts.
A landscape of EPR implementation and key aspects for the design and effectiveness of schemes is one of the outcomes prepared by UNEP-IETC after the workshops. UNEP-IETC is committed to follow EPR development in these regions and provide Member States with the required support for the effectiveness of schemes.
Key figures
Two workshops in November 2023 and September 2024, attended by:
- Fourteen countries, from two regions (South America, West Asia), with 22 country representatives of national and local governments, in addition to over 50 representatives of private sector, academia and other waste sector stakeholders
Outreach
- A Follow-up report published by Uruguay government, in celebration of 20 years of EPR implementation in the country
- Articles in media
- South America workshop
- Dos décadas de Responsabilidad Extendida del Productor en Uruguay: avances y desafíos (Ministerio de Ambiente, Uruguay)
- Retos y logros en la Responsabilidad Extendida del Productor en Gestión de Residuos (UNDP, Uruguay)
- Avances y desafíos en gestión de residuos con foco en la Responsabilidad Extendida del Productor (Ministerio de Ambiente, Uruguay)
- West Asia workshop
- Organised by the Supreme Council for the Environment and the UNEP: Assistant Professor at the Arabian Gulf University Participates in Workshop on “EPR” | Arabian Gulf University (Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain)
- أستاذ الهندسة البيئية المساعد بجامعة الخليج العربي تشاركفي ورشة عملحول المسؤولية الممتدة للمنتج (EPR) بتنظيم من المجلس الأعلى للبيئة وبرنامج الأممالمتحدة للبيئة | صحيفةالوطن (Al-Watan, Bahrain)
- South America workshop
- Social Media
Material repository
▶︎EPR Worksop Reports
Latin America (29 November - 1 December 2023, Montevideo, Uruguay)
English / Spanish
West Asia (17-18 September 2024, Manama, Bahrain)
English / Arabic
*** For contact about UNEP-IETC action on EPR: felipe.dallorsoletta@u.org
*** For more information about UNEP work on EPR: Reducing Plastic Pollution through the Extended Producer Responsibility
