The website “EcoMENA” has published the article by Ignasi Puig (ENT) entitled “The Concept of Generalised Extended Producer Responsibility (GEPR)”. EcoMENA is a volunteer-driven initiative to create mass environmental awareness and to foster sustainability worldwide and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) in particular. Their core areas of focus include renewable energy, sustainable development, waste management, environment protection, energy efficiency, green buildings, water management and resource conservation.
The notion of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has been part of the waste policy for a long time, particularly within the OECD countries. According to the OECD, EPR “aims to make producers responsible for the environmental impacts of their products throughout the product chain, from design to the post-consumer phase”. EPR alleviates the burden of Public Administrations for managing end-of-life products, while -if properly designed- incentivising waste prevention and recycling.
Whereas in traditional EPR, there is one or more PRO for each specific waste stream, and producers have to contribute to these PROs, in Generalised Extended Producer Responsibility (GEPR), specific EPR schemes could continue to exist, and maybe a few more would be created, but there would be also a general PRO for all those products with no specific EPR schemes.