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United States EPA530-K-98-004
Environmental Protection December 1998
Agency http://www.epa.gov
Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5306W)
Extended Product
Responsibility
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EXTENDED PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY, AN EMERGING
ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLE, can help businesses spark
product innovation, cut costs, and enhance customer
loyalty, while growing market share at home and abroad.
Making Product Systems a New Focus
Worldwide demand for more complex products, coupled with the
challenge of sustainable development, highlights the limits of traditional
environmental protection strategies. End-of-pipe emissions controls,
and even pollution prevention measures, generally address environmen-
tal impacts at individual industrial facilities. But the diffuse impacts
from products themselves (whether from obtaining or making raw
materials, manufacturing, or product use and disposal) are not fully
addressed by these facility-specific strategies.
A new emphasis on "greening" product systems is emerging as a means
to advance pollution prevention and resource conservation in a more
holistic and global fashion. This thinking is having powerful impli-
cations in the global marketplace. One manifestation is the growing
trend in Europe to mandate producer takeback and recycling of prod-
ucts at the end of their useful lives. This approach, known as "extended
producer responsibility" is intended to reduce waste, boost recycling, and
drive environmentally conscious design. Some Asian countries, as well as
several Canadian provinces, are implementing or considering producer
responsibility mandates as well.
In the U.S., a different concept is taking hold. "Extended product
responsibility" recognizes that manufacturers have considerable ability
to reduce the life-cycle impacts of their products. However, it also
recognizes that lasting and substantial environmental improvements in
product systems can only occur with the combined expertise, ingenuity,
cooperation, and commitment of all the actors in the product chain—
from suppliers, designers, manufacturers, and distributors to retailers,
customers, recyclers, remanufacturers, and disposers. While reducing
end-of-life product waste is an important part of extended product
responsibility (EPR), identifying other important life-cycle environmen-
tal impacts of products, such as energy efficiency, is also integral to the
concept. In this sense, EPR applies a life-cycle approach to "greening"
product systems.
EPR is related to several familiar environmental policies and trends—
pollution prevention, design for the environment, "greening" the supply
chain, product stewardship, eco-efficiency, and sustainable development.
What distinguishes EPR from these concepts is its focus on product
systems and engaging all players in the product chain. EPR is a means
for making product systems sustainable.
Consumers and Governments Are Also Critical Players for EPR
In keeping with the principle that responsibility is "shared," EPA is
promoting actions that different players in the product chain can
take to reduce the environmental impacts of products. Examples include
giving consumers better economic signals to reduce waste through variable
rate pricing for garbage disposal and working to ensure that governments
buy environmentally preferable products and reduce regulatory barriers to
recover products at the end of their useful lives.
Why Should My Company Consider EPR?
Many companies have realized important product improvements—
enhanced reliability, performance, and energy efficiency—by applying
EPR. By bringing more value to customers through greener products,
companies can earn greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. In
addition, reducing toxics in products helps reduce potential future
environmental liabilities.
EPR also can save companies money through increases in efficiency
and recovery of previously wasted materials. Many major manufacturers
are realizing that, in the long run, it is more efficient to reuse certain
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, Ford Motor
Company's
bumper take-back
program saves about
$2 million each year.
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components and recapture the value added during the original
manufacturing process. For example, Xerox Corporation created its Asset
Recycle Management program to take back used products for remanufac-
turing, conversion, or disassembly and saved over $50 million in the first
year. The Ford Motor Company estimates that its plastic bumper take-
back program, created to recycle old bumpers into new bumpers, saves
about $2 million each year.
Finally, many U.S. companies already practicing EPR are responding in
part to initiatives in Europe, Asia, and other critical international trading
regions. For the global marketplace, EPR is becoming a passport for
doing business.
How Does EPR Work?
For manufacturers, the essence of EPR is taking on responsibility and
addressing the environmental impacts of their products where they have
not done so before. This can include rethinking the very concept of the
product (e.g., selling a service rather than a
product); exploring new methods of product
delivery; creating a feed-back loop with cus-
tomers to drive environmentally sound
redesign of products; and closing the product
materials cycle and conserving resources by
handling end-of-life products as assets. Here
are some ways that product manufacturers
can make a difference:
Xerox Corporation
saved $50 million
in the first year of its
EPR program.
Raw materials selection Companies can reduce the amount and
toxicity of the raw materials they use and incorporate recycled material
into their processes. For example, in addition to its standard raw
material performance requirements, Hewlett-Packard requires suppliers
to address its "E" (for environment) standards, which include meeting
minimum plastic recycled content levels and other specific environmen-
tal performance criteria.
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Production impacts Companies can look for opportunities to reduce
process wastes, energy consumption, and toxic chemicals used in
production. Nortel teamed with its main chemical supplier in an
innovative "shared savings" approach. The supply contract, based on
chemical services provided rather than on the
volume of chemicals purchased, contains incen-
tives for both firms to reduce chemical use.
U After developing
ff% a new recycling
technology, DuPont Films
now collects and recycles
used PET film from
retailers nationwide.
Product use Companies can design their
products and services to use fewer resources
(including less energy) and generate less
waste after the products leave the factory,
without compromising cost and performance
features important to customers. Instead of
simply selling carpets, Interface Flooring
Systems leases long-term carpet services: the company designs and
installs sections of carpet based on an analysis of traffic patterns in
customers' facilities, replaces worn sections as needed (recycling these
sections), and periodically recarpets the entire space using both new
and existing carpet.
Recycling and reuse Products can be designed for recyclability and/or
easy disassembly for repair, reuse, upgrading, and remanufacturing.
To improve the recyclability of its refrigerators, Frigidaire consolidated
several types of plastic into a single polycarbonate—improving
reliability at the same time.
Products at end-of-life Companies can take products back for
recycling or remanufacturing or establish themselves as a market
for secondary materials collected by others. In 1995, members of
the rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery industry established the
Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC). Joined by over
28,000 retailers, the RBRC launched a nationwide industry-funded
recovery system to take back and recycle nickel-cadmium batteries.
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Visit www.epa.gov/epr
for more details on
EPR worldwide.
As these examples illustrate, EPR means creating partnerships between
manufacturers, suppliers, waste handlers, and customers to collectively
improve the environmental performance of
products. A number of U.S. companies are
leading the way to sustainable product systems
by incorporating the whole vision of EPR—
applying its principles to all stages of the
product life cycle.
To realize EPR in practice, companies must commit to weaving the
EPR principle throughout the entire organization—starting from the
top. Corporate leaders must promote this new vision and signal their
willingness to consider innovative product strategies and nontraditional
relationships with other players along the product chain.
There is no "one-size-fits-all" EPR solution appropriate for all product
systems. Look for ways to implement this principle that make environmen-
tal and economic sense for your products. Companies are successfully
implementing EPR as a strategy for improving product performance and
increasing market share. Add EPR to your company's future vision and
realize many of its potential benefits.
• EPR and the President's Council on Sustainable Development
l| In the 1996 report Sustainable America: A New Consensus, the
President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD)
pointed to extended product responsibility (EPR) as a way to achieve
better resource conservation and pollution prevention at lower cost. This
endorsement "constitutes a challenge to the American people to develop
models of shared responsibility and demonstrate how these models can be
put into effect." Following the report, a Workshop on Extended Product
Responsibility, held in Washington, D.C., underlined corporate America's
growing interest in EPR. With this broad-based support as a backdrop,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is encouraging
America's top companies to engage actively in EPR initiatives and
help accelerate the move toward sustainability.
Are There Mandates for EPR in the US?
There are no federal mandates for product responsibility
comparable to the existing or proposed takeback and
recycling mandates for packaging, electronics, and other
products in Europe. However, some states have EPR-like
requirements, such as deposit-refund systems for beverage
containers, tires, and used oil. Also, some states require
producers to take back some kinds of used batteries and are
considering ways to encourage recovery of other products
such as electronics.
EPA is interested in steering producers and other players
in the product chain voluntarily toward EPR. EPA has
learned that voluntary measures implemented by those
most familiar with products and their distribution and use
often achieve more environmental improvement at less cost
than mandates. Voluntary measures that potentially reduce
the need for mandates can have environmental and
economic benefits for both business and society as a whole.
Where Can I Find More Information?
For more information on EPR, including how other
companies are using this principle and links to related
programs, visit our EPR website at www.epa.gov/epr.
The mention of any company, product, or process in this publication
does not constitute or imply endorsement by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
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