Practical implications of product-based environmental legislation

Abstract

A number of approaches to industrial ecology are now employed within environmental legislation, targeting products at various stages of their life-cycle. These require producers to reduce the hazardous substances content of their products during production, increase product energy efficiency during use, and organise and finance improved recycling and treatment of their products at end of life (Extended Producer Responsibility, or ‘EPR’). Such requirements are increasingly commonplace in the Americas, Eurasia, and Pacific Rim countries and have substantial impact. If companies can’t comply, then they can’t sell their products. There appears to be little research on the practical steps producers have taken to manage compliance with this new-wave of product-based requirements, as compared to the more established areas of environmental management addressing site-based air and water emissions, resource and energy use, and waste management. Based on a number of case studies, this chapter explains how such product-based legislation operates in practice.