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Producer Responsibility (producer + responsibility)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences60%

Selected Abstracts

From Cradle to Grave: Extended Producer Responsibility for Household Hazardous Wastes in British Columbia

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2001
Ronald J. Driedger
Summary Household hazardous wastes (HHWs), the discarded pesticides, solvents, paints, lubricating oil, and similar products common to residences throughout the industrial world, create problems for governments charged with managing solid waste. When disposed of improperly in landfills or incinerators or if dumped illegally, HHW may contribute to soil and water contamination. A most common management tool for HHW is a special collection effort that segregates HHW from normal trash and disposes of it in an approved manner, all at a higher cost to the governmental jurisdiction. The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) has undertaken a different approach, based on the use of extended producer responsibility (EPR). BC's efforts began in 1992 with adoption of a regulation on used lubricating oil (lube oil). More than 40 million liters (L) of used lube oil have been collected annually through the EPR system established under this regulation. A regulation establishing producer responsibility for postconsumer paints followed in 1994. BC enacted an additional regulation establishing EPR in 1997 for solvents/flammable liquids, domestic pesticides, gasoline, and pharmaceuticals. As a result of the application of EPR to HHW, local government costs for managing HHW and the amount of HHW identified in municipal waste have declined. Although the regulations appear to have mixed success in prompting consumers to avoid products that result in HHW, there are indications that they may be more effective than conventional management efforts. Based on BC's experience with EPR, key factors for successful implementation include maintaining flexibility in program design, creating viable funding alternatives, aggressive enforcement to provide a level playing field, and adopting policies that maximize diversion of HHW from landfills, while minimizing waste generation, setting targets for reuse and recycling, promoting consumer awareness and convenience, involving local government jurisdictions, and monitoring outcomes. [source]

Industry responses to EU WEEE and ROHS Directives: perspectives from China

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2006
Jieqiong Yu
Abstract The electrical and electronics (EE) industry has come under increasing pressure to adopt extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies through the introduction of the European Union's Directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances (ROHS). Based on the findings of 50 questionnaires and in-depth interviews with China's EE manufacturers, this paper investigates the perception of and readiness of companies for implementation of WEEE and ROHS in China. It identifies key difficulties encountered by manufacturers in fulfilling the requirements and evaluates the effectiveness of these two directives in promoting environmental reform. The findings indicate that the extent of companies' responses largely depends on their market structure and client requirements. Supply chain management, raw material testing and cost implications appear to be key challenges in addressing issues surrounding the directives. There is little evidence to suggest that these directives have effectively driven China's EE manufacturers towards systematic eco-design. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

From Cradle to Grave: Extended Producer Responsibility for Household Hazardous Wastes in British Columbia

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2001
Ronald J. Driedger
Summary Household hazardous wastes (HHWs), the discarded pesticides, solvents, paints, lubricating oil, and similar products common to residences throughout the industrial world, create problems for governments charged with managing solid waste. When disposed of improperly in landfills or incinerators or if dumped illegally, HHW may contribute to soil and water contamination. A most common management tool for HHW is a special collection effort that segregates HHW from normal trash and disposes of it in an approved manner, all at a higher cost to the governmental jurisdiction. The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) has undertaken a different approach, based on the use of extended producer responsibility (EPR). BC's efforts began in 1992 with adoption of a regulation on used lubricating oil (lube oil). More than 40 million liters (L) of used lube oil have been collected annually through the EPR system established under this regulation. A regulation establishing producer responsibility for postconsumer paints followed in 1994. BC enacted an additional regulation establishing EPR in 1997 for solvents/flammable liquids, domestic pesticides, gasoline, and pharmaceuticals. As a result of the application of EPR to HHW, local government costs for managing HHW and the amount of HHW identified in municipal waste have declined. Although the regulations appear to have mixed success in prompting consumers to avoid products that result in HHW, there are indications that they may be more effective than conventional management efforts. Based on BC's experience with EPR, key factors for successful implementation include maintaining flexibility in program design, creating viable funding alternatives, aggressive enforcement to provide a level playing field, and adopting policies that maximize diversion of HHW from landfills, while minimizing waste generation, setting targets for reuse and recycling, promoting consumer awareness and convenience, involving local government jurisdictions, and monitoring outcomes. [source]

Regulation and voluntarism: A case study of governance in the making

REGULATION & GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2009
Tamar Barkay
Abstract In this article I analyze a multi-stakeholder process of environmental regulation. By grounding the article in the literature on regulatory capitalism and governance, I follow the career of a specific legislative process: the enactment of Israel's Deposit Law on Beverage Containers, which aims to delegate the responsibility for recycling to industry. I show that one crucial result of this process was the creation of a non-profit entity licensed to act as a compliance mechanism. This new entity enabled industry to distance itself from the responsibility of recycling, and thereby frustrated the original objective of the legislation, which was to implement the principle of "extended producer responsibility." Furthermore, this entity, owned by commercial companies and yet acting as an environmentally friendly organization, allowed industry to promote an anti-regulatory agenda via a "civic voice." The study moves methodologically from considering governance as an institutional structure to analyzing the process of "governancing," through which authoritative capacities and legal responsibilities are distributed among state and non-state actors. Two key findings are that this process and its outcome (i) are premised on an ideology of civic voluntarism, which ultimately delegates environmental responsibilities to citizens; and (ii) facilitate an anti-regulatory climate that serves commercial interests. [source]

New instruments , old practices?

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 6 2006
The implications of environmental management systems, extended producer responsibility for design for the environment
Abstract As the focus of environmental policy and management is shifting from cleaner production at the process level towards greener products, there is a need for new kinds of policy instruments and initiatives. Environmental management systems (EMSs) and extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems are efforts to overcome the limitations of the traditional regulatory approach. In this paper, I illustrate how EMSs and EPR systems have influenced the emergence of greener products in three case companies. These case studies are complemented by results from a survey on design for the environment in the electrical and electronics industry. Both the case studies and the survey indicate that the linkage between EMSs and product development is weak or completely missing. Therefore, the mere existence of an EMS can hardly be used as a convincing indicator of the implementation of an environmentally friendly design process. The results regarding the EPR systems are more positive. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]