Extended producer responsibility for packaging waste in South Africa: Current approaches and lessons learned

Abstract

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a policy concept aimed at extending producers’ responsibility for their products to the post-consumer stage of their products’ life cycle. One of the outcomes of an effective EPR programme is to move waste management up the waste hierarchy away from final disposal in favour of recycling, minimisation and avoidance. This paper examines various approaches to implementing EPR for various types of packaging waste in South Africa, focusing in particular on their effectiveness in stimulating the recovery of post-consumer packaging material for recycling. In particular, the approaches adopted in the plastic bag, steel beverage can, glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) industries are examined. It is found that voluntary industry initiatives (as in the can, glass and PET industries) are far more effective than mandatory, government-imposed regulations (as in the plastic bag industry) in stimulating recovery. It is suggested that this can be explained by the particular types of market failure affecting recycling markets; namely information failure, technical constraints, search costs, etc; which act as barriers to the development of a viable recycling industry. In such cases, it is in the industry’s own best interests to overcome such failures, e.g. through voluntary implementation of EPR.