Challenges and opportunities for Extended Producer Responsibility in the EU
What is the role of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in a circular economy?
The Zero Waste Festival, which took place in Barcelona on 26-27 March, devoted one session to discussing the lessons of the last 30 years and the opportunities for the coming 30, so that EPR becomes an enabler in this transition.
The presentation in the video follows the path elucidated in the Designing EPR to foster the EU’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy study, published by Zero Waste Europe in April 2025. This study details how a two-pillar transformation of EPR is needed to address challenges like resource scarcity, energy insecurity, and global supply chain disruptions:
- The first pillar calls for harmonisation across EU Member States and the creation of a central advisory body to reduce inefficiencies.
- The second pillar urges a shift in EPR’s purpose – from merely covering waste costs to enabling circularity by funding prevention, reuse, and repair initiatives.
If you don’t have time to read the 50 pages of the report, you can watch the video above to get a good grasp of the proposals.
