Civil society, businesses, and cities urge the European Commission to reform Extended Producer Responsibility
A coalition of 38 civil society organisations urged a reboot of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in a letter to European Commission Executive Vice-Presidents Teresa Ribera and Stéphane Séjourné and Commissioner Jessika Roswall today.
While welcoming the Commission’s decision to address EPR under the Circular Economy Act (CEA), the signatories warned that focusing solely on system optimisation and harmonisation will not be enough to deliver the EU’s climate, circularity, and industrial strategy objectives.
Theresa Mörsen, Waste and Resources Policy Manager at Zero Waste Europe, said: ‘The lack of funding for non-waste-related circular processes like reuse, refill, and repair partly explains the limited progress on circularity achieved in the past decade. Waste from packaging, or Waste From Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) has grown steadily, putting the EU’s circular objectives at risk.’
The coalition stressed that Europe’s recycling rates have stagnated while waste generation continues to grow. To change course, the CEA must redefine EPR to cover the full costs of end-of-life treatment and allocate meaningful funding to upstream circular measures that reduce waste in the first place.
This joint letter is the latest moment in a series of year-long Zero Waste Europe-led calls to improve EPR in the EU. Over the summer, 36 European cities – including Riga, Paris, Tallinn and Brussels – and businesses from the packaging reuse sector rallied behind an open manifesto calling on the European Commission to reform EPR systems. The manifesto signatories urged for easing financial pressure on local authorities; fund reuse and waste-prevention initiatives; and ensure accountability and transparency in Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO) governance, with a protected role for municipalities challenging a system that still rewards waste over prevention.
Manon Jourdan, Waste Prevention Manager at Zero Waste Europe, adds: ‘’While EPR systems have been successful in making producers pay for the collection of some of their waste, they haven’t stopped waste generation from growing. Plastic packaging alone is up 27% in the last decade. We must EPR to make producers responsible for the full lifecycle of their products and prioritise waste reduction and reuse.’’
Uniting civil society, cities, and businesses, both the joint letter and the manifesto call on EU policy-makers to take this ’’once-in-a-decade chance to shift from waste management to genuine circularity and hold producers accountable’’.
ENDS
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Notes to editor
The joint letter issued today highlights existing examples, such as France’s textile EPR scheme and the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, demonstrating that integrating reuse and repair into EPR is both feasible and necessary.
- Joint letter: Beyond waste management – EPR to finance circularity
- Break the single-use bias: Europe’s Prevention Pioneers demand EPR Reform to support packaging waste prevention and reuse
Further reading
- Circular Economy Act policy recommendations [Published 18/02/2025]
- Designing EPR to foster the EU’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy [Published 14/04/2025]
- Extended Producer Responsibility compatible with planetary boundaries [Published 14/11/2024]
- Ending the end of single-use plastic campaign
Press contacts
Giulia Lodi / Communications & Network Officer at Zero Waste Europe | [email protected] or [email protected]
Theresa Mörsen / Waste & Resources Policy Manager | [email protected]
Manon Jourdan / Waste Prevention Manager | [email protected]
About Zero Waste Europe
Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) is the European network of communities, local leaders, experts, and change agents working towards a better use of resources and the elimination of waste in our society. We advocate for sustainable systems; for the redesign of our relationship with resources; and for a global shift towards environmental justice, accelerating a just transition towards zero waste for the benefit of people and the planet. www.zerowasteeurope.eu