The transition to a circular economy, including the move to a form of full Extended Producer Responsibility, invariably requires adapting international models to local political, economic and environmental circumstances. In many developing countries, one of the most challenging questions is how to incorporate the existing and often well-entrenched informal waste recovery sector within regulatory models which make international product makers the responsible party for operating reverse supply chains for their end-of-life goods and related packaging.…
South Africa is in the midst of a significant overhaul of its product stewardship and waste diversion operations. Each of the printed paper and packaging (PPP), electrical and electronic, and lighting industries have respectively prepared 5-year Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) plans. Producers in all of these industries have been engaged in this process and, overall, a clear consensus has emerged that EPR in South Africa is both environmentally and socially necessary. SA EPR: From Voluntary…
A recently released report to British Columbia Ministry of the Environment, Competition under Extended Producer Responsibility in British Columbia, Regulating for Environmental Effectiveness and Economic Efficiency, is the latest, and perhaps most thorough, assessment of the importance of economic actors at each stage in a reverse supply chain for collecting and processing materials being free to compete or collaborate in achieving environmental and market outcomes under EPR. The Limits of Recycling Monopsonies The report highlights…
The CCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment)’s Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste, dated November 2018, outlines the commitment of all provincial and territorial ministers of the environment in Canada on plastics waste. The Strategy overtly builds upon various previous multi-lateral initiatives on plastic waste reduction, many of which Canada was only tangentially involved. What is truly new and groundbreaking is the first trilateral federal, provincial, and territorial legislative commitment to a circular economy.…
The Memorandum of Understanding on Circular Economy Between the European Commission and the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China, dated July 16th, 2018 (the “EU-China Agreement”) may be light on binding commitments, but is, nonetheless, a true watershed event on the path to a circular economy (CE) for a number of reasons: − it may well be the first international agreement (excluding intra-EU initiatives) on CE, and certainly the most…