Extended producer responsibility for packaging waste in South Africa: Current approaches and lessons learned

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a policy concept aimed at extending producers’ responsibility for their products to the post-consumer stage of their products’ lifecycle. This paper examines various approaches to implementing EPR for various types of packaging waste in South Africa, focusing in particular on their effectiveness in stimulating the recovery of post-consumer packaging material for recycling. In particular, the approaches adopted in the plastic bag, steel beverage can, glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) industries are examined. It is found that voluntary industry initiatives (as in the can, glass and PET industries) can be effective in stimulating recovery in a developing country context. By contrast, in the South African case, mandatory, government-imposed regulations (as in the plastic bag industry) have not been effective in stimulating recovery. However, this does not imply that voluntary initiatives are always more effective than mandatory regulations. Instead, it is likely that the differing results for plastic bags as opposed to other packaging waste streams in South Africa can be explained by the differing characteristics of the former; in particular, their reusability (particularly for bin liners) and low recycling value relative to the other waste streams. In addition, in the case of glass and PET, a major incentive behind the voluntary initiatives was the desire to avoid punitive regulations like those imposed in the plastic bag industry. It could therefore be argued that mandatory regulations in the plastic bag industry had the indirect effect of stimulating recovery in the glass and PET industries.