Extended producer responsibility

Waste is and will remain a valuable resource that can save tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

 Every Norwegian throws away 428 kilograms of rubbish a year, and this is only a quarter of the country’s total rubbish produced every single year. Rubbish is defined as: everything we ever have bought, or received that has lost its purpose for us as individuals. It does not, however, mean that rubbish is without value. On the contrary, it is a valuable resource if recycled.

One of the solutions to the waste heap and also to the climate crisis is to extend the responsibility of the manufacturer, so that it also applies to the waste treatment of its products.  This is called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).  The logic is simple: if one manufactures something then one is also responsible for the product’s environmental damage, after it has ended up as rubbish. This involves the manufacturer taking the economic responsibility for the waste treatment. When the producer responsibility is truly effective, products are designed to last from cradle to cradle, not just from cradle to grave. The climate benefits vary. For glass, several hundred kilos of CO₂ are saved for every tonne we recycle, while we can save up to 20 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of copper.

For this reason, politicians need to dare to make tough demands – and follow up on them so that the products we make are for the future, not for the scrap heap.