EPR – Extended Producer Responsibility

The International Alliance of Waste Pickers Position on EPR

To amplify our collective voice on EPR, we’re inviting organizations and allies to endorse this position . Having your endorsement means that IAWP will have a much stronger voice to negotiate and fight for Waste Picker rights on EPR

What is EPR

Policy makers and civil society are trying to solve this problem through something called Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR. EPR holds companies more responsible for the impacts of what they produce by requiring them to finance, and often also manage, the recycling, reuse, or disposal of their products and packaging.

EPR has the potential to benefit the environment and to generate decent work in waste management. But for the world’s 22 million informal waste workers, EPR can be harmful. Waste pickers manage 30-80% of the waste in many cities, but EPR is sometimes designed in ways that create barriers to the participation and recognition of waste pickers in the system.

In 2018, the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers, (currently International Alliance of Waste Pickers) with support from WIEGO, established a working group dedicated to understanding and developing resources for the role of waste pickers in EPR. These resources are shared on this website, which is updated as new content is finalized.  The working group is composed of waste pickers, organizers, technical experts, policy advisors, and academicians connected to waste picker organizations across five continents.  

Representatives of the International Alliance of Waste Pickers’ EPR Working Group (in alphabetical order) include:

Case Studies

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Resources

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