A circular economy for packaging: Extended Producer Responsibility

This is a calendar block for Tuesday’s fortnightly ‘The Circular Economy Show’. You can access the live stream at 15:00pm GMT+1 through this link https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/our-work/activities/the-circular-economy-show. Please subscribe to the Foundation’s YouTube channel and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find more information and circular economy related content.

The title for this episode is: A circular economy for packaging: Extended Producer Responsibility

To stop packaging pollution we need a circular economy where we eliminate what we don't need, innovate towards new packaging, products and business models, and circulate all the packaging we do use. To circulate packaging, we need dedicated, ongoing, and sufficient funding for collection, sorting, and recycling – otherwise the economics simply do not stack up – it costs more to do, than the money it makes.

The only proven way to provide the necessary funding is through schemes where the companies putting packaging on the market are required to pay for its collection, sorting, and recycling — such schemes are called extended producer responsibility (EPR).

EPR can be more than a financing tool for recycling. It’s an opportunity to improve transparency, incentivise better packaging design and reduce carbon emissions.