EPR organisations and their strategic role: analysis of good practices to ensure success

Sofies, in collaboration with Erion (leading Italian Producer Responsibility Organisation for the management of waste associated with electronic products) has produced a report compiling the best practices of extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems across a variety of waste streams in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom (UK). The objective of this project has been to outline the characteristics and practices that contribute to an EPR scheme’s successful performance and to its efficient management.

Over the past 20 years, policy makers within the EU have becoming increasingly aware of the potential of EPR as a policy instrument to help prevent waste at the source, support the achievement of collection, recycling and recovery targets, and to reduce the environmental impact of a product.

As such, this increasing awareness has led to the wide adaptation of the EPR concept for many waste streams across Europe. As a consequence of this growing interest, the EPR policy landscape keeps evolving and results in an increasing complexity for producers to meet their obligations. To counter the administrative and operational burden but also the additional complexity stemming from a fast-changing policy landscape, producers can collaborate through collective EPR schemes. The collective schemes exempt the producers from directly managing their waste and allow them to comply with the changing regulatory landscape while maximising the environmental, financial and social benefits.

Given that the way in which EPR schemes are set up varies considerably, Sofies has aimed to analyse and identify a series of good practices that can enable schemes to better perform their waste management responsibilities, while also pursuing economic efficiency, so as to provide their members with quality service without exorbitant costs.