Extended Producer Responsibility

This sharing of responsibility between municipalities and taxpayers and stewards is known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which describes the life-cycle of products and packaging made, sold and distributed by suppliers, importers, first-sellers, brand-owners, retailers and manufacturers. It means that the “producer’s” responsibility for products and packaging extends to the post-consumer phase – requiring businesses to take measures to ensure proper end-of-life handling.

EPR encourages a  ‘cradle-to-cradle’  approach to managing materials, meaning products and packaging discarded by the consumer are recovered, recycled and reused to make new products – redirecting waste destined for landfill and reducing our impact on the environment.

Reuse and recycling uses less energy than manufacturing from new materials and as the costs of collection, processing and recycling are shifted from taxpayers to the producers of the materials, this approach encourages industry to be more innovative in product and packaging design.