What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)? EPR is an emerging strategy being used in OECD (and other) countries to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with products throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products. These programmes change the traditional balance of responsibilities among manufacturers and distributors of consumer goods, the consumer, and the government, particularly with regard to the post-consumer stage of the product’s life. They extend the responsibilities assigned producers and distributors in the past (i.e. worker safety, prevention and treatment of environmental releases from production, financial and legal responsibility for sound management of production wastes) to include responsibilities (whether financial, physical, or both) for the management of the product at the post- consumer stage. By doing so EPR encourages producers to re-evaluate decisions regarding materials selection, production processes, packaging, and marketing strategies to reduce costs for which they have, for the first time, become responsible when the product reaches the post-consumer stage. This systems, or life cycle, approach to product design and production presents a unique incentive for the producer to act in ways that will promote goals shared by OECD governments: waste prevention and reduction, increased use of recycled materials in production, and internalization of environmental costs in product prices. The most common characteristics of implementation approaches for EPR strategies in OECD countries to date include: (a) government mandated reduction and/or recycling targets; (b) conditions under which producers may transfer their individual responsibilities to a collective industry entity formed for that purpose; and (c) specific requirements related to other government goals, such as retention of market share for reusable products or conditions under which energy recovery may be counted toward achievement of the recycling targets. Such conditions may be established in enabling legislation, implementing ordinances, or voluntary agreements. To date the responsibilities of other actors have played a relatively minor role in the communication of EPR strategies, yet their role is critical if the programme is to be successful. Perhaps the single strongest incentive governments can provide to foster achievement of waste reduction and recycling at the household level is unit-based pricing. Local authorities will continue to be involved in managing municipal wastes, and will provide an important feedback loop for national authorities regarding the effectiveness of the strategy’s implementation. National authorities should ensure that government purchasing policies address and favour, wherever possible, products containing recycled materials. In order to stimulate secondary markets, they may also provide support for research and development or commercialization of technologies and plants needed to process secondary materials. Some governments, and many in industry, have expressed a preference for a "shared" responsibility approach. This implies that more precision is needed to indicate what entity is the "producer" to whom responsibility is extended. For example, "producers" can be raw material suppliers, fabricators of products, suppliers of parts to assemblers, fabricators of packaging and so on. In a "shared responsibility" regime, an equitable allocation of responsibilities along the life cycle of a product is an important objective. OECD is currently exploring options for suggesting ways to distribute responsibility along the life cycle. Purpose of This Study. OECD governments have expressed interest in how EPR, which many view as an important new interpretation of the Polluter Pays Principle, can be put into effect. They are eager to learn about experience to date in OECD countries and to identify the key issues to be addressed in the design of EPR strategies. This paper responds to such interests in two ways: it provides government policy-makers with a framework for analysing the utility of an EPR strategy, and makes available information concerning the current state of implementation of EPR strategies in the OECD area. The framework is presented in discussions focusing on a series of questions that confront decision-makers. The primary focus of the narrative and supporting illustrations is EPR strategies in the context of municipal waste management. Information on EPR implementation in the OECD area is provided in three Appendices which provide: (1) information on the legal framework supporting EPR strategies being implemented or developed, (2) an overview of implementation tools and the scope of their coverage, and (3) a detailed look at implementation approaches used for packaging wastes. Experience to Date. To date ten OECD governments have adopted national legislation that provides authority to impose EPR requirements on producers of a variety of products. Four others have such legislation covering limited product categories or limited areas of the country. Four more are currently engaged in discussions that are intended to lead to new national legislation for EPR. Details of the legislative provisions of the OECD countries are provided in Appendix 1. The product categories that are most commonly addressed are packaging, electric/electronic products, automobiles, waste paper, and motor oils, though quite a wide variety of products have been included. To date, implementation experience is limited since most programmes are quite new. Only in Germany and Austria, with regarding to packaging waste specifically, have results become available. German authorities report that packaging was reduced by one million tonnes between 1991 and 1993. In addition, multi-use packaging for drinks increased in market share from 72 per cent to 74.5 per cent, and a clear trend is reported toward reusable transport packaging. More than 400,000 tons of packaging wastes were collected and recycled in Austria in 1993. These are encouraging results for the governments implementing programmes, yet adjustments continue to be made in both these early programmes to address issues that have arisen in the experience gained. Other countries are able to provide results for parts of their current programmes (usually those that pre-dated the EPR label, but do in fact extend the responsibility of producers, such as returnable beverage containers), but time will be needed before the overall strategy can be evaluated using hard data. Information concerning the implementing ordinances, regulations, and voluntary agreements for all kinds of product categories is provided in Appendix 2. Appendix 3 provides a more detailed look at packaging requirements throughout the OECD area.