Editing Extended producer responsibility (section)

==Definition==
Extended producer responsibility uses financial [[incentive]]s to encourage manufacturers to design [[environmentally friendly]] products by holding producers responsible for the costs of managing their products at [[end-of-life (product)|end of life]]. This policy approach differs from [[product stewardship]], which shares responsibility across the chain of custody of a product,<ref>{{cite web |work=Waste to Wealth|title=Extended Producer Responsibility |url=http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/epr/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310194722/http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/epr/index.html |archive-date=2012-03-10}}</ref> in that it attempts to relieve local governments of the costs of managing certain [[priority product]]s by requiring manufacturers to internalize the cost of [[recycling]] within the product price. EPR is based on the principle that manufacturers (usually [[brand]] owners) have the greatest control over [[product design]] and [[marketing]] and have the greatest ability and responsibility to reduce [[toxicity]] and [[waste minimization|waste]].<ref name="Sierra Club">{{cite web |publisher=[[Sierra Club]] |title=Producer Responsibility Recycling |url=http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/zerowaste/producerresponsibility/index.asp |access-date=2009-05-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201111452/http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/zerowaste/producerresponsibility/index.asp |archive-date=2008-12-01}}</ref>

EPR may take the form of a [[reuse]], [[wikt:Special:Search/buyback|buyback]], or recycling program. The producer may also choose to delegate this responsibility to a third party, a so-called ''producer responsibility organization'' (PRO), which is paid by the producer for used-product management. In this way, EPR shifts the responsibility for waste management from government to [[private industry]], obliging producers, importers and/or sellers to internalise waste management costs in their product prices and ensure the safe handling of their products.<ref name="Hanisch 170A-175A"/> However, different stakeholders perceive the concept and the role of producers in various ways.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Tasaki |author-first1=Tomohiro |url=https://www-cycle.nies.go.jp/eng/report/epr_eng.html |title=International Survey on Stakeholders' Perception of the Concept of Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship |author-last2=Tojo |author-first2=Naoko |author-last3=Lindhqvist |author-first3=Thomas |date=2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author-last1=Tasaki |author-first1=Tomohiro |author-last2=Tojo |author-first2=Naoko |author-last3=Lindhqvist |author-first3=Thomas |title=Differences in Perception of Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship among Stakeholders: An International Questionnaire Survey and Statistical Analysis |journal=Journal of Industrial Ecology |date=2019 |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=438–451 |doi=10.1111/jiec.12815 |s2cid=158692316}}</ref>

A good example of a producer responsibility organization is PRO Europe S.P.R.L. (Packaging Recovery Organisation Europe),<ref>{{cite web |author-last1= |author-first1= |author-last2= |author-first2= |date= |title=PRO EUROPE is the umbrella organisation for European packaging and packaging waste recovery and recycling schemes |url=https://www.pro-e.org/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128223755/https://www.pro-e.org/index.html |archive-date=2021-01-28 |access-date=2021-01-21 |website=www.pro-e.org}}</ref> founded in 1995, the [[umbrella organization]] for European packaging and [[packaging waste]] [[resource recovery|recovery]] and recycling schemes. Product stewardship organizations like PRO Europe are intended to relieve industrial companies and commercial enterprises of their individual obligation to take back used products through the operation of an organization which fulfills these obligations on a nationwide basis on behalf of their member companies. The aim is to ensure the recovery and recycling of packaging waste in the most economically efficient and ecologically sound manner. In many countries, this is done through the [[Green Dot (symbol)|Green Dot]] trademark of which PRO Europe is the general licensor. In twenty-five nations, companies are now using the Green Dot as the financing symbol for the organization of recovery, sorting and recycling of sales packaging.