Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), extended producer responsibility (EPR) is defined as an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle.

An EPR policy is characterised by:

  1. the shifting of responsibility (physically and/or economically, fully or partially) upstream toward the producer and away from municipalities; and

  2. the provision of incentives for producers to take into account environmental considerations when designing their products.
While other policy instruments tend to target a single point in the chain, EPR seeks to integrate signals related to the environmental characteristics of products and production processes throughout the product chain.

Why is EPR needed?

There is enormous pressure to reduce the amount of litter and packaging waste sent to South Africa’s landfills.

South Africa’s EPR regulations – under Section 18 of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act gazetted on 5 May 2021 by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) – have identified products for diversion from landfill in the pursuit of a circular economy. These fall under lighting; paper, packaging and some single use products; and electrical and electronic equipment.

Under NEMWA, EPR measures can take various forms and include:

  • waste minimisation programmes;
  • financial arrangements for any fund that has been established to promote the reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery of waste;
  • awareness programmes to inform the public of the effects of waste emanating from the product; and
  • any other measures to reduce the potential impact of the product on health and the environment.

EPR also seeks to change how producers, brand owners, retailers and importers design, make, sell and keep their products in the recycling loop.

EPR registration and compliance

The producers of the identified products are required to pay a fee based on the volume of products, whether manufactured locally or imported, that are placed on to the South African market.

The regulations also make the producer (or group of producers) responsible for the establishment of an EPR scheme, the development and implementation of an EPR plan and compliance against the strict five-year targets set by the government, for yearly collection and recycling. Some substrates are also required to achieve recycled content targets.

Existing producers who place more than 10 tonnes of identified product onto the market annually were required to register online with the DFFE on the SAWIC website by 5 November 2021. New producers are required to register online on SAWIC within three months of their establishment.

It is mandatory for producers to register with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE; formerly Environmental Affairs) on their website and ensure that all identified products are covered by an appropriate EPR Scheme.

Obligated producers can either:

  • join an existing Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO);
  • form a new PRO; or
  • develop and submit an independent EPR Scheme for their company’s paper and packaging products to DFFE.
Producers are required to submit declarations of their volumes or tonnages placed on the South African market to the PROs to which they belong.

The producer is required to pay the EPR fee in line with the terms of the PRO. The PRO will invoice the producers.

A producer is only compliant if all the above measures are in place. It is important to note that the regulations do not dictate at which point producers have to pay their EPR fee, therefore this may be different for different PROs.