Implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility mechanisms to ensure waste recycling

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Publishing date: Monday, 29 March 2021
Tags:
  • Q – Economia Agriculturii și Resurselor Naturale Economia Ecologică și a Mediului ,
  • Q2 – Resurse Regenerabile și Conservare ,
  • Q3 – Resurse Neregenerabile și Conservare ,
  • Q5 – Economia Mediului
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Human life and activity strongly depends on the availability and quality of natural resources. All the products we use in our daily lives are made from natural resources and with the help of natural resources. But not all of these resources are renewable.

Many of the natural resources, such as gas, crude oil, copper, iron, lead, etc. are non-renewable, they get depleted as they are used for energy production and in manufacturing various goods for current use. In this context, taking into account our responsibility towards future generations, it is important to use natural resources rationally, and the recycling of products comes as a solution for prolonging the life of certain natural resources. 

Recycling is the process of collecting certain materials that would otherwise be considered waste, such as metal scrap, paper, wood, plastic, etc., and turning them into new reusable products. Recycling involves collecting and processing of recyclable materials, manufacturing products with recycled content and purchasing recycled products, which create a continuous loop that ensures the overall success and the value of recycling. To increase the share of recycled materials, scientists and experts in circular economy develop various economic tools, which are later transposed into public policies. One of the tools applied in international practice is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mechanism. 

Extended Producer Responsibility is an economic instrument intended to make the economic operators more responsible at the production stage, in order to make the most rational use of natural resources by reducing the components/structure of the manufactured product and/or unnecessary packaging, as well as at the stage of placing the goods on the market, by assuming the responsibility to collect from the market recyclable waste generated by the consumption of these goods.

Moldovan national legislation defines the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). However, the mechanisms and practical tools that would ensure the effective implementation of this principle are missing. Thus, despite the EPR provisions in the Law on Waste Management, the secondary regulatory framework that would implement the given provisions is incomplete and/or non-stimulatory. In these conditions, the companies that are potential waste generators are neither stimulated, nor encouraged to diminish their impact on the environment. 

Goal

The Study aims to analyse the interaction of key stakeholders of this chain: Producers/traders - Consumers - Recyclers - State and the incentives in this area, and to recommend mechanisms that would encourage the participants to this process to return and recover the waste generated from consumption.

To develop an appropriate secondary legislation, it is necessary to analyse and define a comprehensive mechanism, establishing the roles and relationships between the multiple participants to this process. The Study will focus on defining the roles and on describing the key processes and streams in an EPR mechanism, in particular the stream of materials and stream of funds.

Methodology

The study was conducted during May-November 2020. The following research methods were used:

• Benchmarking methods: compared the national regulatory framework with the best European practices in the region, evaluated the differences in the implementation of EPR mechanism;

• Qualitative methods: Interviews with representatives of public institutions and businesses; 

• Modelling methods: analysed the role of participants in the EPR mechanism and established the networking model to ensure a proper functioning of EPR tool.

Thus, the desk review covered the practices of implementing the extended producer responsibility in European Union countries, in particular Romania, Sweden, Estonia etc. These models were presented and discussed in a focus group, organised on 1 October 2020, with representatives of the State, business associations and operators/producers from sectors of interest. We collected opinions and visions about possible ways of implementing the mechanism of extended producer responsibility. We also had individual interviews and consultation with waste processing enterprises and representatives of business associations.

Download the study  Download the infographic (RO)


 

Suedia

Funded by Sweden

Tags: Natalia Chitii

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