What is EPR?
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system is a policy approach that makes producers responsible for their products throughout the entire lifecycle, including the post-consumer stage (OECD, 2016).
Key goal: Incentivise producers to design environmentally friendly products and reduce waste by making them responsible for related waste management, including the costs of waste collection and treatment.
Components of an EPR System
Core Principles
Product Stewardship
Producers assume responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, including take-back, recycling, and final disposal.
Incentive for Eco-design
By making producers responsible for waste management costs, EPR encourages the development of products that are easier to recycle or reuse, promoting greater circularity and reducing end-of-pipe waste.
Polluter Pays Principle
Those who generate pollution (i.e., producers) should bear the costs associated with managing it, to prevent environmental harm.
Comprehensive Policy Package
EPR is typically conceived as a comprehensive policy package, combining various instruments to achieve its objectives.
Multi-stakeholder Approach
Effective implementation of EPR often involves a multi-stakeholder panel, comprising experts, policymakers, researchers, industry associations, and consumer groups.
Clear Regulations and Accountability
Successful EPR implementation necessitates clear regulations, in which every stakeholder is held accountable.
How EPR can reduce marine litter
Responsibilities for producers mean incentivisation of eco-design over the full product life cycle
Improvement of waste separation, collection, and treatment; reducing the risk of waste leakage into the environment (e.g., through open dumping or improper handling)
Higher reuse and recycling rates, thus keeping the value in the loop
Increasing of awareness, including initiation and cost coverage of cleaning campaigns
Transparency and monitoring increases, clearly defined responsibilities allow for better law enforcement
Bringing the informal sector into the system
Integrating the informal sector is key because it brings valuable experience and efficiency into the system, helps the EPR framework work smoothly without overlap, and creates real social and economic benefits — from fair pay to better working conditions.
How to integrate the informal sector?
Involve early: Include informal workers from the start when designing EPR systems so that their voices and experience are heard.
Create a clear path: Help informal workers join the formal system through simple registration, licences, or contracts that provide job security and protection.
Support financially: Ensure fair pay and provide incentives, such as improved conditions for waste collection and drop-off.
EPR in the MENA Region
Most MENA countries implement Circular Economy principles primarily in fragmented silos, focusing on waste management activities such as disposal, recovery, and recycling, rather than adopting a systemic product-lifecycle approach. EPR is steadily gaining traction across the MENA region as governments introduce policies to shift waste management costs and accountability to producers. For example, countries such as Egypt and Jordan have introduced enabling legislation and early implementation measures, while established systems already operate in Tunisia. Other countries, including Morocco and Lebanon, are developing EPR roadmaps. Overall, the region is moving from fragmented recycling initiatives towards structured producer responsibility schemes aligned with global circular economy goals.
