EPR as a Corporate Social Responsibility

Terseer Ugbor –CEO REDIN

What is EPR

EPR stands for Extended Producer Responsibility — a concept that has captured the hearts of policymakers globally.

In the field of waste management and sustainable development, Extended Producer Responsibility is a strategy to add all the environmental costs associated with a product to the market price of that product.

In essence, we the consumers all indirectly pay for recycling the products and waste we generate.

Variations on this concept have surfaced, but EPR policies generally impose a fee that is paid by manufacturers, producers, importers, wholesalers or retailers for targeted waste products, and establish specific collection goals for each targeted waste material or product.

How Does EPR Work?

EPR is an environmental protection strategy to reach an 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.

EPR works through a mandatory, negotiated or voluntary system that places responsibility for financing recycling at the doorsteps of companies or organisations profiting from placing these products on the market or sponsoring the use of such products.

Because the cost of recycling supersedes the economic value of most waste products, the recycling fees are then deployed directly to provide subsidies for collection, transportation and recycling of the specific waste.

Who Pays?

Different variations of EPR, like Product Stewardship Programmes require all parties in the chain of custody to share responsibility for recycling, others require only product owners.

1. Manufacturers2. Importers3. Wholesalers4. Retailers5. Collectors6. Recyclers7. Consumers

Circular Economy

Who is a PRO

A Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) is an entity retained by a producer or group of producers to operate a waste management system, monitor and prepare reports on quantities of used products collected and recycled.

Under EPR, producers choose to delegate this responsibility to a third party, a so-called Producer Responsibility Organization(PRO), which is paid by the producer for used-product management.

In this way, EPR shifts the responsibility for waste management from government to private industry obliging producers, importers and/or sellers to internalize waste management costs in their product prices

Product Stewardship

Product Stewardship is gaining in popularity because of its less regulatory nature and its recognition that other parties have a role to play.

Product Stewardship is the act of minimizing health, safety, environmental, and social impacts, and maximizing economic benefits of a product throughout all lifecycle stages.

The producer of the product has the greatest ability to minimize adverse impacts, but other stakeholders, such as suppliers, retailers, government, recyclers and consumers, may also play a role. Product stewardship can be implemented through either voluntary programs or legal requirements.

EPR as a Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR is generally understood as a private firms voluntary policy to contribute to societal goals. Over the last decade however, CSR has moved considerably from voluntary decisions at organizational level, to mandatory schemes at regional, national and international levels.

EPR is one of such CSR policies that must be mandatory if we are to meet the environmental goals and ensure fair and shared responsibility in managing our waste.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach of EPR as various waste streams have different dynamics. Sector stakeholders must dialogue and agree on an EPR strategy that works and achieves the environmental goals.

Policy Positions

NESREA believes that it is in the best interest of the public and the environment to reduce the adverse health, financial and environmental impacts associated with used consumer products, and that the responsibility for reducing these impacts must be shared among manufacturers, retailers, recyclers and consumers.

NESREA believes that the greater the responsibility of an entity or interest group has to minimize a product's lifecycle impacts, the greater the opportunity for addressing those impacts.

NESREA has released the Extended Producer Responsibility guidelines to encourage this policy option for every sector or industries with an adverse environmental impact.

Regulatory Strategy for EPR

The Federal Ministry of Environment working with other governmental entities must establish a national policy that mandates product stewardship and Extended Producer Responsibility in Nigeria.

To achieve effective implementation of EPR in Nigeria multi-stakeholder dialogues and sectorial groups should be encouraged to establish PRO’s that promote shared lifecycle management of products and encourage resource reduction, reuse, recycling, and decreased use of toxic and virgin components.

Governments must Initiate and facilitate efforts that support the efficient and effective implementation of product stewardship and Extended Producer Responsibility programmes which must be focal to our waste management strategy in Nigeria.

Current EPR Programmes in Nigeria

Packaging Waste EPR

NESREA has recognized 3 Producer Responsibility Organisations in Nigeria.

1. Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) – The FBRA targets packaging waste including plastics bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard paper, labelling materials, etc. Members include Coca-Cola, Pepsi, SevenUp, Nigerian Breweries, Nigerian Bottling Company, Guinness…etc.

E-Waste EPR

Extended Producer Responsibility Organisation of Nigeria (EPRON) – is established to tackle the nuisance of electrical and electronic waste in Nigeria. Members include HP, MTN, DELL, Philips, Microsoft and Delloite… etc.

Used Battery EPR

Alliance for Responsible Battery Recycling (ARBR) – is the Producer Responsibility Organisation for the battery sector. Established by the battery sector to ensure batteries, especially Used Lead Acid Batteries are collected, transported and recycled in an environmentally sound manner.

Some Global Best Practice of EPR Programmes

In Germany, since the adoption of EPR, "between 1991 and 1998, the per capita consumption of packaging was reduced from 94.7 kg to 82 kg, resulting in a reduction of 13.4%.

European Commission developed one waste directive for all member states (Hanisch 2000). One major goal was to have all member states recycle 25% of all packaging material and have accomplished the goal.

In the United States, EPR is gaining popularity with 40 such laws enacted since 2008. In 2010 alone, 38 such EPR bills were introduced in state legislatures across the United States.

Auto Recycling Nederland (ARN) is a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) that organizes vehicle recycling in the Netherlands under their EPR Programme.

The Canada-Wide Action Plan for Extended Producer Responsibility (CAP-EPR) was adopted in Canada in 2009 under the guidance of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

Conclusion

References

1. OECD (2001). Extended ProducerResponsibility: A GuidanceManual for Governments.2. Thomas Lindhqvist & Karl Lidgren, "Models for Extended Producer Responsibility," in Sweden,

October 1990.3. Thomas Lindhqvist, "Towards an [EPR]- analysis of experiences and proposals," April 1992.4. Hanisch, C. (2000). Is Extended Producer Responsibility Effective?. Environ Sci Technol, 34 (7),

pp.170 A-175 A.5. Toffel, Michael W.; Stein, Antoinette; Lee, Katharine L. (2008-01-01). "Extending Producer

Responsibility: An Evaluation Framework for Product Take-Back Policies". Harvard Business School.6. Nash, Jennifer, and Christopher Bosso. "Extended Producer Responsibility in the United States." Journal of Industrial

Ecology 17.2 (2013): 175-85.Web.7. "Progress Report on the Canada-Wide Action Plan for Extender Producer Responsibility" (PDF).

Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2018.8. Schwartz, Joel (June 1, 2002). "Extended Producer Responsibility". Reason Foundation. The Reason

Foundation.9. World Business Council on Sustainable Development an World Resources Institute (2001). The Greenhouse Gas

Protocol. Conches-Geneva, Switzerland.10. Gattuso, Dana, and Joel Schwartz. "Extended Producer Responsibility." Reason Foundation. Reason

Foundation, 1 June 2002.Web. 5 May 201511. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_producer_responsibility

Thank You