Producer Responsibility

Producer responsibility is aimed at ensuring that businesses who place products on the market take responsibility for those products once they become waste. It implements the ‘polluter pays’ principle. This type of policy is used to implement several European Commission Directives that deal with "priority waste streams", for which there is concern regarding their impact on the environment, for example, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directives. In these, and the Batteries and Accumulators Directive, responsibility is placed on producers to bear the cost of collection, sorting, treatment and recycling or recovery. Specific detail regarding producer responsibility of materials that are classed  as, or contain hazardous materials are detailed below. The policy can address:

  • the minimisation of material in the product including the reduction of the use of hazardous substances
  • design of new products so that they are easier to recycle at end of life
  • encourage reuse of the product
  • target levels of recycling or other forms of recovery.

Administration of producer responsibility legislation is split between the Defra and BERR, formerly the Department of Trade and Industry.

 

 

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Batteries

Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment(WEEE)

End of Life Vehicles (ELV)

Decorative paint