Extended Producer Responsibility

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is the responsibility of producers who design and market products for end-of-life treatment (Akenji et al., 2011). EPR has been applied to different products, notably packaging materials, vehicles, and electrical and electronic equipment. Policymakers apply EPR using four instruments: (1) product take-back requirements; (2) economic and market-based instruments such as deposit–refund schemes, advanced disposal fee, material taxes, and upstream combination tax or subsidy that incentivises producers to comply with EPR; (3) regulations and performance standards such as minimum recycled content; and (4) accompanying information-based instruments such as raising public awareness (OECD, 2014).

In Japan, the Act on the Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging (Act No. 112 of 16 June 1995) effectively involves manufacturers to voluntarily conform to the guideline on design for recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Green PET bottles, commonly used for green-tea packaging, have been replaced with transparent ones. Manufacturers have also started producing thinner bottles, thus reducing resin in production and consequently minimising bottle weight (Hosoda, 2004). EPR has been set up for other plastic containers and packaging. Municipalities are responsible for properly sorting and packaging waste containers before these are sent to recyclers. Manufacturers are financially responsible for recycling their products. They may cooperate with producer responsibility organisations (PROs) such as the Japan Containers and Packaging Recycling Association, which outsources the recycling operations to registered recyclers selected through annual tenders under criteria set by the PRO (Yamakawa, 2016). A recycling fee proportional to the quantity of waste multiplied by full recycling cost of the product category is paid to PROs. However, due to the high cost, certain municipalities bypass PROs and contract directly with independent recyclers, undermining the system (Kurita, 2011). The fee paid by municipalities is much higher than the fee paid by manufacturers. For example, in 2003, municipalities paid about ¥423.5 billion (US$3.898 billion, as of 10 December 2019) for waste collection, sorting, and storing, which was 10 times the outlay of manufacturers (¥40 billion or US$0.368 billion, as of 10 December 2019) (Yamakawa, 2016). A challenge for Japan is determining the positive and negative environmental impact as a result of shifting from heavy materials, such as glass bottles and steel cans, to light materials, such as PET bottles, aluminium cans, and paper cartons, which occurred as a result of the law (Yamakawa, 2016).

Similarly, the Republic of Korea (henceforth, Korea) has established EPR by imposing the deposit–refund scheme and advanced deposit fee (ADF). The deposit–refund scheme used to oblige producers and importers to deposit money into a special account and refund them based on the recovery rate (Lease, 2002). This scheme was terminated in 2003 and a new deposit–refund scheme was enforced under the Act on Resource Recirculation of Electrical and End of Life Vehicles (henceforth, the Eco-Assurance Act) and the Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources (henceforth, the Recycling Act) (Heo and Jung, 2014). The Eco-Assurance Act emphasises the responsibility of producers and importers to appropriately treat electrical and electronic equipment as well as vehicles after disposal. The Recycling Act facilitates the new scheme by combining the deposit–refund scheme and the take-back system. Article 15-2 enables producers and importers to include a certain amount (container deposit) in the product price to facilitate the recovery and reuse of containers, which are standardised based on certain specifications and marked as ‘container deposit refundable’ and ‘reusable’. The producers refund the deposit to the person who returns the containers. The producers or importers also reimburse the handling fee incurred by wholesalers or retailers for storing and transporting empty containers. The returned containers and refunding are managed in distribution support centres established by the producers. Producers of beverages have been utilising the scheme with the deposit of about 40% of the cost of manufacturing a new bottle (Heo and Jung, 2014). ADF is charged to producers and importers of hard-to-recycle products, including hazardous chemicals; anti-freeze solution; chewing gum; disposable diapers; cigarettes; and plastic products such as PVC pipes, toys, and kitchenware (OECD, 2014). Table 1 lists the ADF charged to certain products in Korea.