Globalization

Extended Producer Responsibility: A Primer

By Pat Franklin Executive Director Container Recycling Institute

Presented on November 18, 1997, at the Take it Back! '97 Producer Responsibility Forum

"The responsibility, that the waste generated during the production processes could be taken care of in a proper way, from an environmental and resource-saving point of view, should primarily be of the manufacturer. Before the manufacturing of a product is commenced it should be known how the waste which is a result of the production process should be treated, as well as how the product should be taken care of when discarded." These words, which appeared in an official statement by the Swedish Government in 1975, ushered in the age of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). While Germany's Ordinance on the Avoidance of Packaging Waste (Verpackungsverordung) introduced in 1991 is certainly the most well-known EPR mandate, two pieces of Swedish legislation and several other European laws and regulations predated the German Packaging Ordinance. The first of Sweden EPR laws was a recycling mandate for aluminum cans which was enacted after PLM announced plans to build a can manufacturing plant in Sweden in 1979. The National Board for Technical Development announced that using aluminum cans for single-serve beer and soft drinks would be wastefulness of the first order unless there was a system for reclaiming the cans. In 1982 the Swedish government threatened to ban the use of aluminum beverage cans for beer and soft drinks unless they achieved a recycling rate of 75 percent by 1985. After trying several collection schemes, including curbside recycling programs, the aluminum industry determined that the only way they could achieve a 75 percent rate was through a deposit/refund system. The aluminum can recycling rate was 63 percent when PLM introduced the voluntary system in March 1984. By 1987 the recycling rate had increased to 75 percent, and in 1995 the rate was 92...