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EPR Reference Database

Publication type: Conference Paper

Extended product responsibility: an economic assessment of alternative policies

Abstract/summary

Extended Product Responsibility embodies the notion that agents along a product chain should share responsibility for the life-cycle environmental impacts of the product, including those associated with ultimate disposal. Extended Producer Responsibility is a narrower concept which places responsibility on producers and focuses primarily on post- consumer waste disposal. Manufacturer "take-back" requirements are the policy lever most often associated with Extended Producer Responsibility. In this paper, we discuss alternative incentive-based policies that are consistent with the objectives of Extended Product and Producer Responsibility. We argue that an upstream combined product tax and recycling subsidy (UCTS) is generally more cost-effective and imposes fewer transactions costs than the take-back approach. We also consider the strengths and weaknesses of a policy not targeted at producers: unit-based pricing of residential waste collection and disposal. We find that this option shows potential for achieving non-trivial reductions in solid waste. Widespread application in the U.S. of a $1.00 charge per 32-gallon bag could reduce total municipal solid waste disposed by approximately 13 percent per year.

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Author(s)
Karen Palmer
Margaret Walls
Year
1998
Conference name
OECD Workshop: Extended and Shared Responsibility for Products
Publisher
Resources for the Future (RFF)
Number of pages
1-14
Document number
334
URL
http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/10830/1/dp990012.pdf
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