Reformed EPR can boost EU competitiveness and strategic autonomy, study reveals
Brussels, 14 April 2025 – Europe’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes are failing to deliver on circularity and strategic autonomy, new study from Zero Waste Europe reveals.
The environmental network’s study “Designing EPR to Foster the EU’s Competitiveness and Strategic Autonomy” analyses 30 years of EPR implementation and proposes a comprehensive framework to transform EPR systems into catalysts for the circular economy transition. The report also shows how EPR fees are insufficient to significantly influence product design.
Meanwhile, most EPR systems face challenges related to transparency, oversight, and free-riding which, combined with the fragmentation of the single market, offers substantial room for improvement. Issues with transparency of EPR schemes have been exposed by Zero Waste Europe’s network in recent reports in Spain (2024) and Bulgaria (2025).
The report’s author and Founder of Zero Waste Europe, Joan Marc Simon, states:
“We observe what we call the EPR paradox; the systems that were designed to solve a waste problem end up becoming institutional barriers to circularity. We need to go back to the original policy principle of EPR which makes producers responsible for the whole life cycle of the product, not only the end-of-life.”
The global context has shifted dramatically since EPR was first implemented. Recent supply chain disruptions, energy security concerns, and increasing demand for critical raw materials for electrification and digital technologies have highlighted the EU’s resource vulnerability.
In this new context, EPR must evolve from a waste management financing mechanism to a catalyst for a systemic shift toward resource efficiency and circularity that underpins the EU’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy.
The report lays out a two-pillar plan to unlock EPR’s full potential. The first pillar focuses on system optimisation, calling for harmonised rules across Member States, greater transparency, the creation of a central registry of producers, and the establishment of a European EPR oversight body to reduce administrative burden, tackle free-riding, and support a functioning single market for producer responsibility. The second pillar positions EPR as a circular economy enabler, arguing that EPR fees must go beyond cost-coverage to actively finance waste prevention, reuse, and repair, through dedicated repair funds, reuse infrastructure, and supportive policy measures.
“The future of EPR is in driving a circular economy through a two-pillar approach that fosters innovation, green jobs, and EU competitiveness,” added Simon.
Zero Waste Europe urges EU policy-makers to amend waste legislation and create the right regulatory framework for EPR to deliver its potential.
ENDS
Notes to the editor
- Read the full report, “Designing EPR to Foster the EU’s Competitiveness and Strategic Autonomy”, here: www.zerowasteeurope.eu/library/designing-epr-to-foster-the-eus-competitiveness-and-strategic-autonomy
- This report follows last month’s revelations about severe misreporting in Bulgaria’s waste data, and last year’s misreporting in Spanish waste data.
Press contacts
Sean Flynn, Media Outreach & Communications Officer at Zero Waste Europe: [email protected] or [email protected] / +32 471 96 55 93
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