Manual on the Development of Cleaner Production Policies ... - Unido

DEVELOPMENT OF CP POLICY
MODULE 4: POLICY TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS
Several countries have found that enforcing strict liability, where firms are held responsible for all and
any environmental damage they cause (even if they have fulfilled their legal obligations and have
exercised due environmental diligence) often leads companies to try to minimize their risks and take
preventive measures. The success of liability systems depends on the nature of the enforcement and
legal system of the country.
Liability rules are a threat to environmental non-performers, and can exert a powerful economic
pressure to move away from polluting technologies and unsafe products towards Cleaner Production.
For example, the management of some categories of hazardous wastes in the United States is subject
to such strict liability rules that the generator may be held responsible for environmental damage
caused by the waste generated, even if it was disposed of in accordance with the regulations in force at
the time of disposal.
Another form of liability assignment is relates to responsibility for environmental damage. In certain
cases, not only the enterprise as a legal entity, but also high-ranking individuals within the company,
may be held personally accountable for any actions or neglect that caused significant environmental
damage (civil responsibility of an individual). Some countries have already such provisions, either in a
specific law on responsibility for environmental damage, or in the civil/penal code. For instance, the
Brazilian Environmental Crimes Law, passed in March 1998, includes such provisions and is
considered by many to be the most modern legal text focusing on environmental crime.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
EPR aims to introduce environmental improvements throughout the life cycle of a product by making
the manufacturer responsible for various aspects of the product’s life cycle. The basic principle is to
extend the responsibilities of the manufacturer beyond how the particular item is produced or what
performance standards it meets, to include typically the return, recycling and final disposal of the
product. Shifting responsibility for the end-of-life management of products from consumers and waste
management authorities to manufacturers makes the manufacturers more aware of the issues related to
the end-of-life management of their products. This feedback loop between the downstream (waste
management) and the upstream (design of products) lies at the core of the EPR principle and is
instrumental in improving the design of product and product systems, with the aim of reducing the
environmental impact of the product’s life cycle.
Under an EPR programme, producers bear a number of responsibilities such as the cost of the end-oflife
management of their products (financial responsibility), involvement in the physical return of their
products (physical responsibility) and informing waste managers of the content of their waste
(informative responsibility). Concrete examples of these responsibilities include: return of end-of-life
products; the establishment of returned goods sites/infrastructure for the end-of-life management of
products; meeting recycling targets; the environmentally sound treatment of end-of-life products
(physical and/or financial); the ban of the use of certain materials; and information to consumers on
the content of the products. Concrete ways of fulfilling responsibilities assigned to respective parties
are often left in the hands of producers who are assumed to do it in the most cost-effective manner.
An interesting example of applying EPR is the 1998 Home Appliances Recycling Law in Japan. Under
the programme, manufacturers and importers of four large electrical home appliances (TV sets,
refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines) are required to take back their discarded
products, dismantle them and to recover the components and material that can be reused or recycled.
Differentiated recycling rate requirements of between 50 to 60 per cent by weight are set for the four
products, to be achieved by means of product reuse, component reuse and material recycling with a
positive monetary value.
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