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- What is producer responsibility?
- Extending a producer’s responsibility for a product to the post-consumer
stage of a products life cycle (hence the phrase extended producer
responsibility – producers already have some degree of responsibility
for their products before they become discarded e.g. product liability)
- Shifting responsibility upstream towards the producer and away from
municipalities / local authorities
- Providing incentives for producers to incorporate environmental
considerations in the design of their products
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- “Considering the life cycle of a product from manufacture until the end
of its useful life, producers, material suppliers, trade, consumers and
public authorities share specific waste management responsibilities. However
it is the product manufacturer who has a predominant role since he takes
key decisions concerning his product which largely determine its waste
management potential.”
- Extract from the
- EU Community Strategy on Waste Management, 1996
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- Producer responsibility is in effect a new policy tool for pollution
prevention and waste / resource use minimisation usually translated into
practice via legally enforceable product take back systems. It is
characterised by e.g:
- Responsibility placed on producers for take back of the product at the
end-of-life stage (i.e. waste) including financial responsibility for
the establishment and functioning of the take back schemes and for
dealing with the end-of-life products
- Bans on disposal to landfill / incineration; restrictions on
utilisation of energy recovery
- Targets for recovery / recycling of EOL products (usually with a high
recycling quotient), with prescriptive conditions governing methods of
treatment
- Prescription of standards for minimum recycled content for new products
- Reporting requirements, monitoring provisions and information
disclosure
- Bans / Phase out of hazardous substances and material bans &
restrictions
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- EU Producer Responsibility measures past, present & future
- Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste
- Directive 91/157/EEC on Batteries and Accumulators
- Directive 2000/53/EC on End of
Life Vehicles
- Proposed Directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment
- Supplemented by:
- Directive 75/442/EEC on Waste (‘Framework Directive on Waste’)
- Directive 91/689/EEC on Hazardous Waste
- Directive 1999/31/EC on the Landfill of Waste (the ‘Landfill Directive’)
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- The End-of-Life Vehicles Directive
- Article 4 – ban on hazardous substances / materials – lead; mercury;
cadmium; hexavalent chromium – post 1 July 2003. Subject to certain
conditional exemptions in Annex II
- Article 5 – economic operators to set up collection systems; ELVs to be
transferred to authorised treatment facilities at no cost to the last
holder / owner; producers to meet all or a significant part of the costs
- Article 6 – stipulations on storage and treatment methods for ELVs
- Article 7 – requirements and targets for re-use and recovery (with a
preference for recycling)
- By 2006 85% minimum by an average weight per vehicle and year must be
reused or recovered – 80% minimum by an average weight per vehicle and
year must be reused or recycled (i.e. = permitted maximum of 5% e.g.
energy recovery); for pre-1980 vehicles the figures are 75% and 70%
respectively
- From 2015 it will be 95% reuse and recovery – 85% reused or recycled
- Type approval requirements to be amended so that conditions as to
minimum levels of re-usability, recyclability and recoverability are
imposed
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- Producers:
- Financially responsible for:
- - transport from collection facilities
- - treatment, recovery, disposal
- Originally a 5 year delay in financial responsibility
- New products: Collective or individual systems permitted
- “Historic” products: Collective systems only
- Distributors/retailers:
- Must take back EOL product
when selling similar new product.
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- Original Target for collection from households (non-binding):
- - 4 kg/inhabitant/year
- Recovery Targets: Total Material
- Large Appliances 80 75
- Small Appliances 60 50
- Consumer Equipment 60 50
- Tools 60 50
- Toys 60 50
- IT and Telecom 75 65
- Gas Discharge Lamps --- 80
- CRTs
75 70
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- Substance ‘substitutions’
- - lead
- - mercury
- - cadmium
- - hexavalent chromium
- - 2 brominated flame retardants
(PBB and PBDE)
- 1 January 2008 - original phase out date
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- Exemptions:
- - If no substitute,
- - If substitute is worse for the environment or health
- - Maximum concentration levels may be allowed for
- specific materials /
components.
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- Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997
(as amended)
- Affects businesses which:
- Perform one or more of these activities
- Manufacturing packaging raw materials
- Converting materials into packaging
- Using packaging to pack products or for filling with products
- Selling packaging (i.e. products contained in packaging) to the final
consumer; and
- Own the packaging in question; and
- Supply to someone in another stage of the packaging chain or to the
final user, and
- Exceed the threshold tests in the previous year i.e.
- Annual turnover exceeds £2 million and
- Handles more than 50 tonnes of packaging for the year in question
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- Recovery and Recycling Targets:
- Overall recovery and recycling targets are set for obligated businesses
as a whole, e.g.
- Year Recovery Recycling
- 2000 45% of packaging 13% of packaging
- 2001 56% of packaging 18% of packaging
- 2002 59% of packaging 19% of packaging
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- However, businesses bear responsibility for meeting these targets in
different proportions according to which activity they perform (= the
“activity obligation”):
- Manufacturing packaging raw materials – 6%
- Converting materials into packaging – 9%
- Using packaging to pack products or for filling with products – 37%
- Selling packaging (i.e. products contained in packaging) to the final
consumer – 48%
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- Recovery and Recycling Obligations
- The individual recovery and recycling obligations will depend upon the
activity in question and the type of packaging material being handled:
- Recovery obligation = packaging handled x activity obligation (i.e. %
share) x recovery target
- NB. Recovery means either recycling, energy recovery or composting
- Recycling obligation = packaging handled by material x activity
obligation x recycling target
- NB. Recycling means reprocessing waste materials in a production
process into new materials or product
- In addition, producers who are “sellers” have an obligation to provide
certain information to consumers
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- Compliance
- There are 2 ways in which a business can meet its obligations:
- Comply individually (note: a business with an annual turnover exceeding
£5 million must submit a ‘compliance plan’ with its application for
registration setting out the steps it will take to comply. In addition
the business must pay the registration fee to the Agency, provide data
on packaging handled, recovered and recycled each year and provide
evidence of compliance with the recovery and recycling obligations.
- Join a compliance scheme – there are various scheme in operation
including VALPAK, BIFFPACK, CLEANAPACK and RECYCLE UK. Here, provided
the business meets the conditions of scheme membership, including
provision of necessary data and payment of subscription fees, the scheme
assumes the compliance obligations of its members
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- Packaging Recovery Notes
- The system of Packaging Recovery Notes (“PRNs”) has been developed in
the UK – and is unique to the UK; no other EU country chose this route
to implementing the EU Directive – as a means of enabling obligated
businesses and compliance schemes to obtain evidence of compliance.
- PRNs are issued by accredited packaging waste reprocessors. Obligated
businesses / compliance schemes delivering packaging waste to a
reprocessor can ask to be issued with a PRN for the requisite amount.
Alternatively they can buy PRNs from reprocessors or on the open market
from those with excess PRNs on their hands (they are tradeable).
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- Essential Requirements
- The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 1998 translate into
UK law the requirement of the EU Packaging Directive that, primarily,
all packaging in the EU must comply with certain “essential
requirements” in order to ensure uniformity across the EU Single Market.
- No one responsible for packing or filling products into packaging or
importing packed or filled packaging into the UK may place that
packaging on the market unless that packaging fulfils the Essential
Requirements and the Heavy Metal Concentration Limits:
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- In summary, the Essential Requirements are:
- Packaging must be minimal subject to safety, hygiene and acceptance for
the packed product and for the consumer
- Noxious or hazardous substances in packaging must be minimised in
emissions, ash or leachate from incineration or landfill
- Packaging must be recoverable through at least one of:
- Material recycling
- Incineration with energy recovery
- Composting
- Biodegradation
- In summary, the Heavy Metal Limits are:
- Aggregate heavy metal limits apply to cadmium, mercury, lead and
hexavalent chromium. The total by weight should not exceed:
- 600 ppm on or after 30 June 1998
- 250 ppm on or after 30 June 1999
- 100 ppm on or after 30 June 2001
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Notes
