Individual Producer Responsibility: A Review of Practical Approaches to Implementing Individual Producer Responsibility for the WEEE Directive

Abstract

This report documents the interim findings of the INSEAD IPR Network in relation to investigating practical solutions enabling implementation of Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) for the WEEE Directive. The INSEAD IPR Network is a partnership of producers, academics and technical specialists from across the world working to identify, explore and develop practical solutions to IPR. The network is a project co-ordinated by the International graduate business school, INSEAD. Members and authors of this report are listed in Appendix 1. Article 8.2 of the European WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive establishes individual producer responsibility for the recycling of products put on the market after 13 August 2005. Making each producer responsible for financing the end-of-life costs of their own products is intended to enable end-of-life costs to be fed back to each individual producer. By modifications to the product design, the producer can directly influence the end of life cost. Without Individual Producer Responsibility these incentives for design improvements are lost. This report demonstrates that there are already a range of approaches to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) that have been implemented across the world; many of which attempt to account to a greater or lesser degree for the products and brands of each producer. Oekopol (2007) already noted the development of such approaches, in contrast to the more prevalent collective market-share based implementations (Collective Producer Responsibility – or CPR). In their recent report to the European Commission, Oekopol stated: ‘The alternatives are, in light of on-going efforts of producers, highly feasible.’