Economic Aspects of Extended Producer Responsibility (Electronic book text)

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a policy approach in which the responsibility of the waste from a consumer good is extended back up to the producer of the good, is developing and expanding in OECD countries. Governments find that these schemes can provide a new and flexible approach to reduce the upward trend of waste from consumer products. Yet the economic rationale and efficiency of EPR needs to be carefully assessed. For instance, what are the costs of EPR schemes? How can EPR be combined with other policy instruments such as taxes and charges? How can the efficiency and effectiveness of an EPR scheme be evaluated? How does EPR influence technical innovation and the design of products?

To address these questions, OECD organised a workshop in December 2002, which was hosted by the Japanese Ministry of Environment, in Tokyo. This book contains selected papers presented at this workshop.