Around the world, more and more waste is ending up in the environment. People are throwing away a lot, but there’s not enough funding and expertise in sustainable waste management. 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. So EPR is a way to demand that the producers who profit from products take responsibility for cleaning them up.

Other Resources

Resources on EPR from organizations and workers within the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers network:

EPR Series Webinars (see past events for more)
Hasiru Dala video
Hasiru Dala’s ongoing EPR blog series, published as this report:
https://www.redaccion.com.ar/ley-de-envases-con-inclusion-social-por-que-se-necesita-y-que-propone/
Creating Inclusive EPR Systems Webinar (with Globalrec’s Participation)
Waste Picker Integration Guidelines for South Africa
GAIA EPR Webinars Spanish and Portuguese
In New York and Oregon, Canning Reduces Waste and Changes Lives (Episode 150 of Building Local Power)