The history of Extended Producer Responsibility as concept and policy instrument in the Circular Economy

Partner event:

The International Academy Transformation for Environment and Sustainability (TES Academy) at the German Environment Agency invites you to: 

A public virtual TES event „The history of Extended Producer Responsibility as concept and policy instrument in the Circular Economy“ 

• Keynote by Thomas Lindhqvist (Assoc. Prof. at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University) and Naoko Tojo (Assoc. Prof. at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University)
• Additional input by Reid Lifset (Research Scholar, Yale University School of the Environment) 

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has been increasingly discussed as a concept to solve the current waste problems for specific products. Thomas Lindhqvist first described it in 1990 as “an environmental protection strategy to reach an environmental objective of a decreased total environmental impact of a product, by making the manufacturer of the product responsible for the entire life-cycle of the product and especially for the take-back, recycling, and final disposal”. 

Proponents of EPR argue that by assigning the organizational responsibility for waste management to a producer, EPR could reduce the financial burden of municipalities and support the internalization of commonly externalized costs associated with waste. As such, EPR might also constitute a transformative framework for a shared responsibility for waste handling between producers and consumers, as the latter might contribute to a sustainable waste management through increased purchasing costs. 

In summer 2023, The TES Academy started a joint collaboration process with actors working on and with EPR to discuss its transformative potential in the circular economy. The process started addressing different perspectives on this potential. This includes for example a broader application of EPR internationally, but also its future potential to achieve environmental goals where EPR systems are in place for quite some time, e.g. in Europe. (More information on the TES Academy process on EPR: Promoting Extended Producer Responsibility in international law | Umweltbundesamt).

With this public virtual event we want to take a look back to better understand the genesis of the EPR concept and its implementation. Thomas Lindqvist, together with his colleague Naoko Tojo will look back at the development of EPR over the past decades. Reid Lifset will join with an additional perspective. Afterwards, there will be the option for questions and discussions.