Key Links

• Extended Producer Responsibility in North America
  
  • Government sites
    • British Columbia Industry Product Stewardship Business Plan (2002)
      • Best comprehensive EPR program in N. America [off-site]
        
    • Maine computer monitor and TV recycling bill (passed 4/2004) 
      • First state bill in US using EPR approach [off-site]
        
    • National Beverage Producer Responsibility Act of 2003
      • First federal bill in US using EPR approach [off-site]
        
  • Non-governmental organization sites
    • Product Policy Institute [off-site]
    • EPR Toolkit (by Clean Production Action) [off-site]
    • EPR Principles (by EPR Working Group) [off-site]

GRRN Resources

• Extended Producer Responsibility [off-site]
  • Issue Brochure for Environmental Democracy Campaign
• Eliminating Waste Through Producer Responsibility - GRRN Fact Sheet
• GRRN Model Producer Responsibility Resolution
  • Carrboro NC Producer Responsibility Resolution (1998)
  • Carrboro Letters to Other Officials

Good Reading

• Citizens Guide to Producer Responsibility [off-site]
• Extended Producer Responsibility Policies in the United States and Canada: History and Status [pdf][off-site]
• Beyond Recycling: The Future of Waste
  • By Helen Spiegelman, Enough! Magazine, Spring 2003
• Voluntary Approaches for Environmental Policy: Effectiveness, Efficiency and Usage in Policy Mixes, OECD, June 2003 [off-site]
  • " This report concludes that the environmental effectiveness of voluntary approaches is often questionable, and their economic efficiency is generally low. While administrative and transaction costs vary greatly among voluntary approaches, it is clear that if too few resources are spent in their preparation, negotiation and enforcement, their environmental impacts are likely to be modest. Combining a voluntary approach with a tax or a tradable permit system can trigger quite significant additional administrative costs, and the environmental integrity of the other instrument can be weakened.
• Responsibility is Green
  • By Michelle Gerise Godwin - The Capitol Times (Madison WI), March 27, 2002
• British Columbia's Product Stewardship / EPR "business plan" [off-site]
• Extended Producer Responsibility: A New Concept Spreads Around the World
  • by Bette Fishbein, INFORM Inc. (1996)
• Zero Waste and Producer Responsibility
  • by Helen Spiegelman (1997)
• Take-Back Laws Hold Producers Responsible [off-site]
  • Eric Lombardi, Eco-Cycle (2000)
• Strategies for Clean Production: EPR
  • by Beverly Thorpe, Clean Production Action (1999)
• What is Extended Product Responsibility?
  • by David Haskell, NZ2000 Plastics, Otaki, New Zealand (2000)
• Ottawa, Canada's Take Back to Retail Program
  • This community program educates consumers about alternatives to taxpayer responsibility for waste and as such could be a useful intermediate step to full producer responsibility.

Web Sites

• Clean Production Action [off-site]
• Product Policy Institute [off-site]
• British Columbia's Product Stewardship / EPR Program [off-site]
  • BC's programs are closest to true EPR in North America. Their use of the term 'product stewardship' is very different from the voluntary dialogs championed by U.S. EPA and some state governments.
• INFORM [off-site]
• Institute for Local Self-Reliance [off-site]