Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy tool which requires that all environmental costs of the entire product lifecycle are included in its market price and carried by the producer who is responsible for its design specifications. The EPR costs for designs with high environmental impact and a lack of end-of-life solutions then reflect the true price of the product and so incentivize more responsible design and systems thinking. While EPR schemes have been applied in other sectors such as packaging, electronics, batteries and vehicles, increasingly implemented across the world, France is currently the only country with an EPR scheme for clothing, linen and footwear. A wider global implementation of EPR schemes for fashion products can draw on lessons from the existing EPR scheme (ECO-TLC). It also hinges on the promotion and support of multiple scenarios for extending clothing lifetimes as well as on developing sufficient capacity in sorting, collection and recycling facilities through investment and innovation.(1-7)
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY (EPR)
