Extended Producer Responsibility Recycling, Liability, and Guarantee Funds

Abstract

An important extension of the environmental policy in many countries is the intro- duction of "extended producer responsibility". The "extended responsibility" is related to the retaking and recycling of used goods. The term "producer" is usually widely inter- preted and may include anyone in the chain of suppliers, manufacturers, dealers, and importers. The general idea is that if a profit-maximising firm connected to the early stages of the production process is made liable, it will have an incentive to minimise recycling costs.1 The costs may be reduced by the choice of raw materials, design, processing, or composition of the goods. Dangerous metals and plastics may be substituted, welded parts may be applied in such a way to make dismantling easy, etc. Another means of reducing recycling costs is to prolong the life of the goods through better quality and service. A long-term expectation is that exchanged raw materials, reorganised production, new sys- tems of returns and dismantling, etc., will make the recycling privately profitable.2