ANNOUNCEMENTS
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) has evolved as a policy principle which has been used in the waste management and prevention laws and policies of many nations through take-back mechanisms and financing of the end-of-life management activities in a product’s lifecycle. The main aim of EPR is to lead to improvements in the total lifecycle of a product, from the point of manufacture to recovery/disposal. This research aims makes an assessment of the extended producer responsibility (EPR) principle applied within the Indian plastic waste management policy landscape. To assess how the principle has been applied herein, the present study draws a set of important considerations for EPR from literature and analyses across these the content of key regulations and guidelines related to EPR and plastic waste management. The study also proceeds to study empirically, through expert perspective, the implementation of EPR for plastic waste management to develop an understanding about the perceived outcome of the same and identify major challenges and gaps. Policies for plastic waste management in India that have applied EPR have missed out on basic and crucial aspects of the principle that have led to weak responsibility of producers. The manner in which these considerations have been addresses reflects in the on-ground implementation of EPR. Current EPR implementations for plastic packaging in India has not been able to initiate product redesign, generate funding for municipal collection systems, facilitate modes of implementation especially for small scale recyclers, lead to integration of informal waste workers sector and propel the consumer into a powerful actor for signaling systemic changes.
Keywords: Extended producer responsibility, plastic waste management, plastic packaging, policy, implementation.
