Promoting product stewardship

With respect to the Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) issue: It is very important that producers take responsibility for the environmental impacts that their products may have, during their whole life-cycle. The underlying principles, addressed through the EPR, are the waste prevention, the phase out of dangerous chemicals and the sustainable design of products which eventually will lead to clean production.

At EU level, Extended Producers Responsibility is currently proposed through the draft proposal for an EC directive for Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment. In the US, Environmental NGOs have already started pushing towards the same direction.